Pinning and Tone

[Don Mannino]

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Alan,
=20
I see what you're getting at.  I don't know of any simple answer to
troubleshooting the friction other than removing parts and testing for
friction.  You can do general troubleshooting by swinging the action to
find the loosest and tightest parts, and you can measure down and
upweight to get general friction levels, but removing parts and feeling
the softness of the bushing and checking the friction with a spring
gauge are really the definitive way to know what's up.
=20
Here are some pertinent thoughts, though I'm not sure I can give you any
real helpful procedures to follow:
=20
- Too much friction causes a dull tone with poor projection and
sometimes poor sustain.  It affects the action performance as well, of
course.
- Too little friction causes no problems in tone at all in and of
itself.  It is only because we are using cloth bushings that low
friction results in poor tone because the hammer is not controlled in
its motion well enough.  Please understand me here - if you have a very,
very firm bushing that will pin with low friction and still have
excellent side control, the tone should be fine.  It is the limitation
of using a soft bushing material that forces us to pin with sufficient
friction to get the control we need.  It is not the friction itself
which gives good tone - it is the firmness of the bushing.
- Teflon bushings gave excellent tone with 0 friction, but they didn't
last long enough.  They were an excellent idea, but the bushing material
was not nearly as durable as good bushing cloth, so it deformed with use
and got noisy.
- Poor quality cloth forces us to use more friction in the center to get
the controlled motion of the hammer.  I used to work on some grand
pianos in the 80s that came from the factory with very poor, spongy
cloth in the hammer centers.  I would re-size the bushings with water
and alcohol, then repin from the factory #19 pins up to #20 1/2 pins.
This made thinner, firmer bushings, allowed pinning at about 2 - 4 grams
friction, and resulted in dramatically improved tone.  These pianos were
dull and lifeless from the factory with 6 to 10 grams friction in the
soft hammer centers, and a firm fit with lower friction really made them
sing.
=20
So, when evaluating friction levels in a given piano, I judge by sound
and by feel of the parts, and decide how to work with them.  Now I work
mostly with Kawai parts, and the bushings are very firm with mostly
excellent control of the hammer.  In dry climates they sometimes get too
thin in tone because the hammer center bushings dry out and become too
loose, and repinning them to fit the climate brings the power back up in
the tone.  I find that if I pin for good solid tone in the mid treble,
that same friction level is great for the whole piano.
=20
Don Mannino
=20

-----Original Message-----
From: Alan McCoy [mailto:amccoy@mail.ewu.edu]=20
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2003 9:30 AM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: RE: Pinning and Tone


Thanks Don,
=20
In part what I am trying to get at here is distinguishing between
friction and firmness in the bushing. Can you hear the tonal difference
between a note that has a friction problem vs one that has a firmness
problem?
=20
My normal procedure in reconditioning an action includes checking action
center friction, duh, and I check side to side play gang-style checking
for winking hammers, but I'm looking around to see if someone has
figured out a way to systematically check for both friction and firmness
in an efficient way (ie without painstakingly removing every flange!!)
=20
Alan
=20
PS Bob, Sending them to Marcia is cheating! :-)   Hope things are great
down there in Modesto.

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org]On Behalf Of Don
Mannino
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2003 8:11 AM
To: caut@ptg.org
Subject: FW: Pinning and Tone



Alan,
=20
The tone of the piano can be the best gauge, as poor pinning has a
pretty distinctive sound to it.  I would describe it as a thin and weak
tone.  Checking the friction level in a thin sounding note, repinning
it, and listening will tell you a lot.
=20
Experience is the best teacher here.  I don't have a specification to
tell you, except firm enough by feel and a good solid tone by ear.  I
suppose the engineers could give you a spec, though.  X amount of
deflection with Y amount of force applied Z distance from the pin.
=20
Don Mannino
=20


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