tapping pins (wapin)

[Tim Coates]

David Skolnik wrote:

> At 04:23 PM 04/08/2002 +0000, you wrote:
> >Hello,
> >     The few Wapinized pianos I have played excelled in both power,
> > sustain, and especially clarity.
> >-Mike Jorgensen
>
> But the unrepentant objectivist asks, "Where is the control in the
> experiment? What would these same pianos, rebuilt by the same rebuilder,
> have sounded like with conventional bridge pinning?

There have been pianos totally rebuilt conventionally and then Wapin added after.  SSD 29 at University of Cincinnati was rebuilt be Don Gibbs
with a new soundboard, action, etc. and still wasn't right.  Wapin was added and the piano changed dramatically.  It was this situation that
turned skeptics of Wapin working closely with Michael Wathen into believers.

Last April in St. Louis at the Central West Regional Seminar I installed Wapin on the Killer Octave on a Baldwin SF10 that had been totally
rebuilt by Wim Blees and voiced by Wally Brooks.  There were about 10 people in the class and all agreed I had turned the weakest section of the
piano into the strongest section in a matter of 4 hours.  I did no voicing, not even mating of the strings to the hammers.

Perhaps the national convention should let us do our install seminar so others can experience this.

I will be doing the same install at Rochester, MN this coming Saturday.  David, you should come <g>.

As technicians installing Wapin, we aren't experimenting.  We are doing it because it works, pure and simple.  There will always be objectivists
and we accept that.  That's life.  Wapin Co., LLP has moved on and people are doing this.

Tim Coates
Wapin Co., LLP