Rob Buskop mentions he has a 60 gram down weight which is "heavy"
[150324 MMDigest].

As noted, there can be many causes of a heavy touch.  And just because
a grand has been reconditioned by a 'professional' piano rebuilder
does not always guarantee a good result.  I don't mean that as a slam
against the many highly qualified true professionals who take great
pride in the quality of their work.  Sadly, there are a small number
who have realized they can charge full price for half done worked.

That vent comes from having serviced a very nice grand that had had
a great deal of action work done by professional technicians.  One
technician had replaced the whippens many years ago.  While a good
quality old piano, it was not one for which replacement whippens were
readily available.  So he just bought stock whippens, and then raised
the capstan screws to compensate.

Some years later, another technician had (at great expense) rebuilt
the piano for the owner.  After the work was done, the owner complained
to me (as the local tuner) that the action was still very "heavy."
And it was -- the action played like a truck!

I remembered an article in the PTG Journal on action geometry and
studied it carefully.  Bottom line, the contact point between the
whippen and capstan screw was now out of line.  As an experiment,
I took the existing whippens and lengthened the contact on them so
that the contact point could be correctly lined up.

She almost cried; this was the piano she had wanted.  It was a lot of
work to make a very small difference in geometry, but it made a world
of difference in the touch weight and playability of the piano.

There were several clues.  Most importantly, the capstan screws being
so obviously screwed way out, plus key weights having been removed in
a misguided effort to correct the touch weight.

I have no idea why the technician who had done the most recent work
didn't diagnose this problem.  But it is one of many possibilities.
It taught me never to assume that an action is even close to properly
set up when I get it.

Hope this might help.

John Daly
Florida

 [ Ref. discussion, "Taming Inertia: Creating a Touch to Die For," at
 [ http://my.ptg.org/browse/alldiscussions/viewthread/?GroupId=43&MID=629795#bm0 
 [ -- Robbie