Yeah, that’s Dad. One thing I lagged behind on was dampers, because he loved regulating them, and we let him. He would debate about angling the hammers front to back to prevent a “thunk” when you released the pedal his damper timing was so good. He still is doing damper reg. on the concert grands at Oberlin even though he got tired of concert work. He’s teaching at Nationals this year. Not the damper class.
You do realize he is approaching the damper guide rail differently from Steinway? Before I left Oberlin we were leaving no gap between the damper wire and the felt, i.e. when replacing the damper and guide rail felt at Oberlin, it was unnecessary to lean the damper to one side with the pressure bend. The dampers got noisy otherwise. You do need to take that into consideration when you are dealing with a new Steinway, so I would say unless he mentioned that, you do need to know a little more about dampers than he would tell you just doing things his way. It is also possible that Steinway is not pre-lubing the damper wires, which we always did before installation, and as a result, even though we did not leave a gap, ours rarely failed to return to rest position, while quite a few of the new Steinways at CCM are having this problem even with the gap. I do not understand why Steinway won’t pre-dip the uninstalled damper wires into some kind of lubricating solution, which would be very simple at that stage, or if they are, why the solution is not working.
Maybe I’ll see you at Grand Rapids.
- Ben
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Paul T Williams
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2009 4:22 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Harpsichord & Organ Maintenance Videos
Thanks, Ben
I take it your dad is Ken? Great man. I worked with him at the Oberlin/Steinway seminar last summer...learned all I need to know about dampers!!!! He's a true biking freak!! (in a good way!) Say hi to him!
Thanks again!
Paul
"Sloane, Benjamin (sloaneba)" <sloaneba at ucmail.uc.edu>
Sent by: caut-bounces at ptg.org
06/12/2009 01:09 PM
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Re: [CAUT] Harpsichord & Organ Maintenance Videos
Hello again Paul,
Jim is in Oregon now, vacationing, I think. He is local to Cincinnati.
He showed up to at least one monthly Cincinnati PTG meeting recently. I believe his e-mail is jamesecampbell at fuse.net<mailto:jamesecampbell at fuse.net>
Again, good luck!
- Ben
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Paul T Williams
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2009 1:28 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Harpsichord & Organ Maintenance Videos
Where is Jim located? Is he in the Guild? How might I reach him? I might be wanting to send one to him that is in need of more than I know how to handle. Or, he could come here for a few days...Robert Murphy did that for us a couple years ago and worked on our forte-piano. That was a great learning experience for me!
Thanks!!
Paul
"Sloane, Benjamin (sloaneba)" <sloaneba at ucmail.uc.edu>
Sent by: caut-bounces at ptg.org
06/12/2009 12:20 PM
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Hello again Paul,
Jim Campbell is his name. Does good work, an interesting guy with a multi-dimensional experience. Both him and Eric might turn you into a harpsichord enthusiast; they built a few of them.
I will add that insects in general may sound very musical. Heitor Villa-Lobos wrote tone poems based on the sounds of insects. Of course, “Flight of the Bumblebee” by Rimsky-Korsakov is something we all are familiar with. I am sure there are many others. This is it for digital harpsichord:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=texzpFPJquI
I guess I might have to warm up to harpsichords more myself. Have fun!
- Ben
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Paul T Williams
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2009 12:50 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Harpsichord & Organ Maintenance Videos
I'm not all that fond of harpsichords either. Our organs are in the "just OK" catagory according to our organ prof. But Mr. Bedient of Bedient Pipe Organ factory is located here in Lincoln, so they get pretty good attention. It's a very small group of students who study it. We don't really have any harpsichord profs, but several of the students and faculty in oboe, flute, and voice use them often for recitals, so I must continue to learn more about them. Buzzing flies is a good analogy! Who have you contracted for outside repairs, rebuilding etc.? Nobody in Nebraska works on them.
Best,
Paul
"Sloane, Benjamin (sloaneba)" <sloaneba at ucmail.uc.edu>
Sent by: caut-bounces at ptg.org
06/12/2009 11:09 AM
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Hi Paul,
Well, I am glad they are an inspiration to you. Keep looking.
However, I am hoping to steer things in the direction of an instrument, the organ, that in this region seems to have fallen out of favor in the eyes of the PTG, when counterpoised with the harpsichord, far as non-piano endeavors are concerned for the PTG and CAUT. Maybe the climate is different elsewhere. Perhaps a depiction of these in comparison to nature will help me explain.
No matter how a harpsichord is voiced, it still sounds like buzzing flies to me. I hope that does not sound too pejorative. Obviously, they have an appeal of their own and there place here, and part of my job is to help maintain them, though recently we have been contracting out some harpsichord work, not including what for the most part is concert maintenance. However, a well maintained organ sounds like thunder. If the institution I work at needs to secure funding for continuing education in what is called Performance Management here, I would rather get trained to play with lightning, than to swat at flies. Either area would help with the budget problems at CCM created with contract demands, and I see no reason why to favor one over the other in that case at this school.
Good luck with the harpsichord projects!
- Ben
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Paul T Williams
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2009 10:36 AM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Harpsichord & Organ Maintenance Videos
Hey Ben,
Thanks so much for the harpsichord videos! I've learned something today on plectra replacement and voicing!! :>) Now...off to some of our harpsichords that are acting up! I'll leave the organ stuff to Mr. Bedient!
Paul
"Sloane, Benjamin (sloaneba)" <sloaneba at ucmail.uc.edu>
Sent by: caut-bounces at ptg.org
06/12/2009 09:13 AM
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Good morning all,
Thought somebody might find these videos interesting.
These are organ tuning, voicing, & repairing I believe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CPxaEfFhGI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdtLvHLqMT0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrECqw6mHOE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xze5QRIAO-0&feature=related
And these harpsichord stringing, voicing, and I can’t remember what else
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uQnibdOdW4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_rTN7F5QUY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifaVED5q5Gs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BqRBYM4YxU&feature=related
Probably won’t start a conversation. Have a good day,
-Ben
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