It's Alive!!!!

[Nichols]

Wim,
    All the stuff that Ed wrote, and then some, but.... well.... Der! Play 
it! Talk to any violinist.... virtually no mechanism to break in, but the 
instrument isn't alive until it's been played. I've stood there and heard a 
medium quality student violin "wake up" tremendously within about two hours 
of play.
   I bet they can get a grad student to practice on it.

Oh... and watch out for the pinning. I know, I know.... pinning and tone 
and touchweight. I like 5-6 swings, too........ but. On a one year old D, 
that's not what the factory set up. From what I've seen so far, with just a 
couple of different artists on a couple of new Ds..... the artist seems to 
be able to adapt to the lower friction throw than to higher downweight. 
Also.... the newer set-up seems to rely a little more on the higher 
upweight results from lower friction. The front of the key pops up just a 
bit better, and higher pin friction changes that, etc etc etc. But.... I've 
heard these artists pull any kind of tone they want outta the dern things. 
(with well broken-in hammers and reg) Go figger!

Regards,
Guy

"Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated..."
                                                    anon piano mfg.



>Greetings,
>     New pianos are like new baseball gloves, they don't provide optimum
>control until they are broken in. This is particularly true of Steinways, 
>since it
>seems that they come out of the factory in a VERY green state.   That
>means,(to me) some things need to happen to get a good feeling piano 
>(assuming
>geometry is good enough to keep the front weight down to reasonable levels 
>on the
>keys).
>    I agree with Don, playing this piano a lot right now will probably 
> wake it
>up in the following manner.
>
>     Hammers= PLAY THEM IN!  If you lacquer the hammers to optimum brilliance
>and range all at once, the piano will become thin and harsh quite quickly.
>So,  nowdays, it seems the factory wants to begin with too soft hammers. Let
>students play them until they begin to develop some high end "edge" to go 
>with
>that big round sound.  Then take it away from them and save the piano from
>premature wearing out.
>     Strings=  stringing is usually very unsettled, ie, long bends around the
>hitch and bridge pins that need to be tapped straight while at pitch or a
>little above.  Also, the string bends under the agraffes and vbars need to be
>helped to a straightness that they can't achieve on their own by simple 
>tuning.
> >From what I have seen, the string leveling on the new pianos is 
> non-existant
>after the first couple of pitch raises.
>     Pinning =  is suspect on these new pianos,  It takes a couple of 
> hours to
>dismount a set of hammershannks from the rail and repin to a consistant
>swing, (I like 5-6 swings this time of year).  Without this, all 
>regulation is
>useless.   You might also check the damper assembly for excessive guide wire
>friction and the pinning.
>     Compression=  All the soft stuff in the action train, ie, halfrounds,
>capstan felt, and knuckle  are at their softest.  This wastes effort and 
>until
>these things are packed down, the response will feel vague at the keyboard.
>      Once you have an action that has say, 500 hours of playing on it, the
>felt will be hardened up some, and the hammers should have a good packing in.
>THEN you should be able to regulate it and have a nicely responsive 
>instrument.
>  (of all the above, hammer hardness seems to be by far the most 
> influential).
>Good luck,
>Ed Foote
>
>
>
>
>
>Ed Foote RPT
>http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
>www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
>  <A HREF="http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/399/six_degrees_of_tonality.html">
>MP3.com: Six Degrees of Tonality</A>
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