It's Alive!!!!

[Otto Keyes]

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That would be laquer -- ie:  spray laquer in another guise.  It has a different cachet when diguised with perfume & labeled hairspray, thereby making it more politically correct than the spray bomb this old Idaho spud advocated some months back -- to no comment from the gallery, he added with a hurt & wistful keystroke.  ;-)  Ah, you are a fickle bunch!  :-)  

Actually, the spray laquer (under whatever guise it lurks) can provide a surface stability to the hammer, somewhat akin to the skin on a golf ball.  It allows the core to remain resilient while containing the energy within so it rebounds off the string quickly, thereby giving power without sacrificing tone/colour.  A little acetone on the strike point eliminates most of the zings associated with harderners.  The results are almost instantaneous and can be easily reversed.  

Soaking the hammer with laquer, or whatever one chooses, merely makes a solid felt & laquer lump on the end of the shank.  Kind of like golfing with a rock -- makes lots of noise but doesn't go very far.  (Don't get me wrong here.  I use hardeners which soak into the hammer as well, but try to keep the solution thin & applications minimal.)

Try it on that old/new duffer D & see what happens.  It can allow the piano to develope some decent tone & the resulting increased playing time that is a pleasure, rather than a sentence.  When the piano gets played in, the first shaping will probably take that crust off.  You can then elect to re-apply or not.

Otto
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: David M. Porritt 
  To: caut@ptg.org 
  Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2003 10:15 AM
  Subject: Re: It's Alive!!!!


  Roger:

  What kind of hairspray?

  dave


  __________________________________________

  David M. Porritt, RPT

  Meadows School of the Arts

  Southern Methodist University

  Dallas, TX 75275




  ----- Original message ---------------------------------------->
  From: Roger Jolly <roger.j@sasktel.net>
  To: College and University Technicians <caut@ptg.org>
  Received: Wed, 03 Dec 2003 11:02:16 -0600
  Subject: Re: It's Alive!!!!



  Hi Wim,
                  Comments like, "It is stiffer".  Is all too often tone related.  Just last weekend I had this comment from Vladimir Viardo, who was playing Rach2, sprayed the strike points with hair spray, and he thought I was a genius.  He thanked me for making the action more even and lighter.   (Chuckling)  All I did was spray the hammers.5 mins work tops.  Next time I see the piano, buff off the Hair Spray crust with 400 grit paper.  Now how do I charge for  for a full voicing job?

  Since you are getting these comments from visiting performers of out standing quality, it really sounds as if the piano needs more tone building,  Are your Profs  in the league of Misha Dichter?    OMG University politics.  <G>

  Walk carefully and carry a big stick.
  Roger



  At 03:19 PM 12/1/2003, you wrote:


    Well, actually, it's dead. At least that is what Olga Kern told me last week. She was here to give a recital. I prepped our new D, and put it in the middle of the stage. At 6:30 I stopped by to see if there was at i wasnything she needed. She said, "This piano is dead." I said it was only a year old, and had probably only been played about a dozen times. She said, it sounded like it. I should have kept my mouth shut, but I offered her our 14 year D, which was sittting off stage. After playing just 3 chords, she said she wanted to play the recital on that piano, but only after warming up on it. I had 15 minutes to tune it before the doors opened. Unfortunately, by the end of the fist half, there were several notes that didn't make it. 
     
    But that is not what I'm here to complain about. Olga was not the first pianist to complain about the new piano. Last March Misha Dichter had the same complaint. (but at least he gave me 2 hours to prep the older piano). My question is, how do I put more "life" into a new piano? As I said, the piano only comes out of it's hiding place for special occasions. (No, sun down is not a special occasion here in Alabama, especially not on Sundays.) Since we got the piano in August of last year, there have been about 12 performances on it. The piano is voiced, regulated, etc., so I don't quite understand when a performer says there is no life in the piano. Not even our piano faculty agrees with that, although they do think the piano is a little stiffer than the older one. 
     
    Any advice will be greatly appreciated. 
     
    Wim
    Willem Blees, RPT
    Piano tuner/technician
    School of Music
    University of Alabama

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