[CAUT] Mythbusters

[David Ilvedson]

I liked Steve Brady's bedding technique where the end glides were done last...but I'll give his way a try this Saturday...
Very good ideas, especially the fallboard and keyslip for let-off/drop.   I'm assuming he set samples in the piano...he set 2 felt mutes side by side...VV and glued the top parts together?   Great tips...I'm going to try them all...

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA  94044

----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: "Greg Granoff" <Gregory.Granoff at humboldt.edu>
To: caut at ptg.org
Received: 3/10/2010 1:42:42 PM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Mythbusters


>Thanks Ted for the grit series correction--I had a feeling I'd missed
>something.....
>You might remember that he also said he never lubes balance rail pins after
>cleaning--doesn't want any residues in the balance rail hole.  He does lube
>front rail pins though.
>Nice job of describing his piano-top hammer line, let off and drop
>adjustment technique....I almost forgot about the key slip on top of the
>flanges.  Speak up if you remember anything else.

>Greg

>-----Original Message-----
>From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
>Kidwell, Ted W
>Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 12:56 PM
>To: caut at ptg.org
>Subject: Re: [CAUT] Mythbusters

>Greg is doing a great job of describing this daylong concert prep. Just one
>thing- for hammer shaping he started with an 80 grit strip and spent the
>most time with that getting the shape just right. Then he jumped up to 320
>grit and went from there.

>There were a few other things that struck me in the demo. 

>1. He very thoroughly cleans the key pins with a cotton cloth wetted with
>what he called "methylated alcohol". I took that to mean denatured alcohol.
>He used a shoeshine motion.
>2. He stuck a strip of newspaper under the end glide bolts and clamped down
>the ends of the key frame. He adjusted the bolts so the paper slides out
>with a little resistance but does not tear. To check the other bolts he
>lifts and knocks at the same time and talked about how easy it is to get
>fooled using other tests.
>3. He put the action on top of the piano and set the fallboard up behind it
>resting on its hinge side. He set the keyslip on top of the hammer flanges.
>Now he had a black foreground and background and white hammers coming up in
>between. He used this set up for hammerline, and fine tuning the letoff and
>drop. Very clear and easy to see slight differences.
>4. He glued two felt mutes together side to side to form a split mute. He
>uses this during voicing to very quickly isolate any one string of a
>trichord.

>Great class.




>Ted Kidwell, RPT
>California State University, Sacramento
>Capistrano Hall, rm. 153
>6000 J Street
>Sacramento, CA 95819-6015
>916.278.6737
> 
> 


>-----Original Message-----
>From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Greg
>Granoff
>Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 11:02 AM
>To: caut at ptg.org
>Subject: Re: [CAUT] Mythbusters

>He uses teflon tape backed strips of diamond grit paper only just as wide as
>an individual hammer.
>He begins with around 320 I think he said, graduates to maybe 600 if he
>feels it necessary, and finishes off with 1200.  Obviously, the procedure
>might eliminate the coarsest grit if it wasn't necessary to actually reshape
>significantly. In the class, he began by making a very small change in the
>shape of the hammer, eliminating a slight bulge in the shoulders facing the
>keyboard that made a slightly asymmetrical look. He holds the strip against
>the hammer shoulder to index the strip's horizontal angle for a straight
>striking point.  Later, if he is fine mating hammers to strings, he has even
>narrower strips to make the change he needs on one string position at a
>time. He finds these problems with the method of lifting the hammer/shank to
>the string with a hook, and plucking with a tapered hammer shank. He says he
>never files through the strings for mating, since he is fanatical about
>keeping the correct shape on the "nose" of the hammer, as he called it, and
>his strip method lets him do this. 

>Greg

>-----Original Message-----
>From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Fred
>Sturm
>Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 9:24 AM
>To: caut at ptg.org
>Subject: Re: [CAUT] Mythbusters

>On Mar 8, 2010, at 3:13 PM, Greg Granoff wrote:

>> For me, it was extremely useful to see his hammer filing technique  
>> (he never
>> gang-files) and the materials he used, and he kept up a running  
>> commentary
>> as he worked, crisply answering questions in a careful but efficient
>> Germanic way without ever losing momentum.


>How does he file? Paddle? Strip?
>Regards,
>Fred Sturm
>University of New Mexico
>fssturm at unm.edu