Upright Piano Action

The object is to push the hammer towards the strings with maximum control of touch, allowing for maximum soft and loud playing with easy control for gradation of volume. It's also important to try to get maximum speed of repetition.

The illustration shows a "Langer" style action. This style of action is considered to be one of the best, and is in most top quality old and modern upright pianos. It's impossible to get the same degree of control on an upright piano as that achieved on a grand, as the upright action "throws" the hammer towards the string whereas the grand action "lifts" it towards the string. There have been attempts to improve the repetition, such as extra springs by Bechstein on the all pre-1940 models except 5 and 10, but while these help they make the action difficult to work on and the trade has not generally taken this up.