Abstract: The keyboard or pianos and similar musical instruments has key shanks (levers) which rest on a balance rail from which balance pins project. The balance rail is mounted on a strengthening rail which is keyed into one of two parallel slots in an underlying support wall. There are two balance-pin holes in each shank. The distance between the two holes corresponds to the distance between the two parallel slots in the underlying support. The result is that assembly or adjustment for either light or heavy touch may be achieved at almost no added manufacturing cost. The touch depends upon which slot is employed and which hole is employed.

Abstract: The keyboard for pianos and similar musical instruments has key shanks (levers) formed of structural foam containing glass fibers, there being only one shank construction for all the white keys and another for all the black. The shanks are connected, at their outer ends, to self-positioning hollow key caps. Each shank rests, at a laterally thickened central portion, on a synthetic resin balance rail from which an integral balance pin projects into a slot in such central portion. The outer end of each shank rests on a synthetic resin guide rail having a guide pin formed integrally therewith and extending into the shank. The laterally thickened central portions of the shanks are sufficiently close to each other to provide a strengthening effect creating much resistance to side forces such as occur, for example, during shipment. The balance rail and guide rail, with their integral pins, are injection molded of solid synthetic resin.