(Ref. Karl Juelg in 241009 MMDigest)

I have a Beale (Australian) player piano and I removed or repositioned
weights in all the keys so that they would fall when playing. I did
this mainly for the purpose of recording MIDI files from piano rolls
using a QRS PNOScan II keyboard strip.

This was some years ago, but I recall that I removed all the weights
from behind the pivot point of the keys and then found the heaviest
key using a kitchen scale. The heaviest key was 11 grams. So I then
positioned weights in front of the pivot point so that all keys when
pivoted had a downward weight at the front of 11 gms.

This worked well; the keys fall nicely and I can record a MIDI file
from a piano roll. I slow the play rate [Tempo] down to about 20
(i.e., one-quarter) and then speed up the MIDI file by a factor of
4 or 5 to get the correct playing tempo. Slowing the recording rate
eliminates differences between the falling rate of the keys (although
in theory, they should all be the same).

The piano is noticeably light to the touch when playing, but is still
very playable (by an amateur).

Kind regards,

Geoff Ward
Sydney