On Jun 3, 2010, at 7:22 PM, Peter Sumner wrote: > Fred...have you seen Andre Oorebeek's book 'voice of the > piano'.....his techniques are what I learned back in the mid > eighties in the UK...I sold Schimmel in my store and a visiting > German technician used the same 20 to 35 blow method in the > shoulders...at that time I hadn't seen a Steinway NY style > hammer....and as a result I had to re-learn my approach when I > started to work on NY pianos....mostly delicate crown work now...but > I have found using Andre's techniques have enabled me to 'open up' > the tone of a few pianos with 'hard pressed' hammers in Hamburg > Steinways, Mason and Hamlin, Yamaha's, Schimmels, Estonia and a few > others...but 95% of the instruments I see are NY S & S grands. > Perhaps, if you get the chance to either read the book or see the > DVD you could let me know what you think of that approach. Yes, I have the book and have seen the video. I disagree. I find I get better results with a press method. I am very much aware that the stab method is the predominant one, in Europe as well as in Japan and the US (though the Shigeru techs I have spoken to favor press). I spoke to the Klavierbaumeister at Sauter about it last week, and he agreed with me that a press method yields better results. On the other hand, the production guys all stab - but one I spoke to said he does it that way because he needs to be faster, and because his shoulders and arms have become injured after twenty years doing it. This is one of those standing issues that people agree to disagree about. Andre says pressing is too slow as his comment. I believe much of the stab method's popularity comes from impatience, and the fact that it does take more physical energy to press the needles in. For dense hammers where three needles won't go in readily, it is better to start with two for pre-voicing. Remove one of the side needles in a 3 needle tool. Make two rows of strokes on each side of each hammer, about ten per row (judging by feel). A row stretches from mid shoulder upward to about 4-5 mm from the crown. Full depth insertion to about 5 mm. Doing that to a full set of hammers takes me between 1 1/2 and 2 hours. After this has been done, three needle work can usually be done pretty readily, or perhaps all that is necessary is work in the crown area. Obviously we all make our own choices based on our own experiences, and the exact details of how we do things are often the most important factor, more important than the overall method. But I have to say that watching people "stab voice" I can see quite readily that to my eye there is a lack of control in where the needle is inserted from hammer to hammer, and that depth varies considerably as well. Regards, Fred Sturm fssturm at unm.edu http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/FredSturm
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