Action saturation. As the pianist plays harder, the action parts flex more, so that eventually the force delivered to the string is determined by the whipping movement of the parts rather than the speed of the stroke to the key. The acceleration of the hammer has reached its peak. The pianist plays harder, but the only sound that gets louder is the thump to the keybed. The long keys in a 9' piano are the most flexible. Because of the round hump of the accelerated action at the balance pin, the key must be thinner, therefore more flexible. Keys will become more flexible with age. Sometimes it is possible to add reinforcement to the keys. ES ----- Original Message ----- From: "Israel Stein" <custos3 at comcast.net> To: <caut at ptg.org> Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 1:08 AM Subject: [CAUT] Hamburg Steinway Hammer Voicing (Up) - filing, ProgressReport > >> Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:22:50 -0400 From: "Ed Sutton" >> <ed440 at mindspring.com> wrote: >> >> >> Is it possible you have a problem here with action saturation? > What is "action saturation"? >> Flexing keysticks? > Nope. >> Balance rail is surely bedded. > Yup >> What kind of punchings under the keys? > Crescendo >> How about a split hammer flange rail? >> >> > Nope. It's always been a piano with a problematic bass. The maintenance > records show that the previous set of hammers that was put on in 2000 had > an awful lot of juicing done in the bass and some in the treble (the piano > was purchased new in 1987). Unfortunately our predecessor here used > lacquer. Right now the bass tone quality of this new set is far superior > to what it was with the lacquered previous set - but the power still isn't > up to where it was before (and before it wasn't all that great either - > but adequate for most performers and repertoires). My problem now is how > to bring it up to adequate (or beyond) without ruining the tone quality. > It might still end up being collodion - if i can get my hands on some. I'm > working on it... > > Israel > >> >> In any case, we did file a bunch of felt off the shoulders to make a >> narrower profile in the bottom 3 1/2 octaves of the piano. We also deed >> two rounds of the low shoulder needling first about 10x3 pokes (improved >> the tone a lot) and then another 7x3 (helped some more) on the entire >> piano. >> The tone is now much bigger and fuller, with even a bit of growl in the >> bass (this piano never had any before) and a bit too much "clang" in the >> high midrange and much of the treble for my taste (but that could be >> easily dealt with). I listened to a graduate student play on it for a >> while - and the bass is now audible in context (it wasn't before) but she >> complained that it was hard to play there - and she found the 6th and >> part of the 7th octave sort of "dead". The bass still doesn't put out >> much more than a loud mezzo-forte, and those notes in the 6th and 7th >> octaves are pretty thin. >> >> I have been picking out softer notes in the midrange, tenor and bass, >> shoulder needling them some more - and they have been coming up to their >> neighbors. So I guess next time we'll try some more of the same in the >> bass and that problem treble - and see how much more we can needle out of >> those hammers before diminishing returns set in. I still think that we >> will need juice in the bass (but maybe not in the tenor). But I think >> we'll do some more selective needling and let some students play on it >> for another week or so before making the decision. >> >> Thank you all for all your suggestions (and offers of help, Peter). If >> anyone has any further ideas based on the results described above, I >> would be most appreciative... >> >> Israel Stein >> >
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