Regulation

A vertical piano has about 9,000 moving parts while a grand piano has about 14,000. Regulation is the process of adjustment of those parts to bring out the best performance possible in your piano. Regulation deals with the mechanical aspect of the piano and how the parts interract with each other to accomplish things like ease and quickness of repetition, the ability to play a wide dynamic range (loud. soft and everything in-between), and how heavy or light the touch is. Regulation is the adjustment of geometry that makes every mechanical piece in your piano work at its optimum. There are  built-in adjustment points made by manufactuers for this purpose that compensate for wear as a piano settles and ages.

Good regulation is necessary for the proper functioning of the piano and starts with the keys. The keys are the foundation for the rest of the regulation. Suffice it to say that if they keys are not right, then nothing else can be; just as the foundation of a house is ultimately responsible for the roof. A small mistake at the beginning will be multiplied and amplified to unacceptable proportions in the final result. Our fingers are also the place where we control our music, they are most sensitive place we touch the piano with and can feel the difference in a measurement 1/3 the thickness of a human hair... about 1/1,000 of an inch. This is how precice we have to be in regulation.

For a proper regulation to take place, all parts must function the way they were intended to. it is for this reason, all necessary repairs must be completed first and have stability in relation to other parts. The result is an evenness of touch and control over your piano that enables you to do what you want with your music. It is very tedious, but well worth the effort. The reaction I get when the client first plays the piano after a regulation is, "Wow! I didn't know my piano could play like this!"

For more comprehensive information on regulation, click here.