Sound Clarity for Pianist?

[A440A@aol.com]

 Avery's correspondent questions the tonal production of his rebuilt piano.

> When I hear someone play my
>piano and when I stick my ear over the hammers, it's beautiful.
>But my problem is (I think) because there is such a pure attack, from the
>bench I don't get to hear the great tone and I think I'm missing part of
>the initial attack.  This may be causing me difficulties playing.

     When I hear terms such as pure attack,  I think of rock-hard hammers,
and this is a fresh rebuild,  so I am assuming I am missing something here,
so the first thing that must be fixed is communication.
     I know of  no way to really give advice on this particular piano, using
only a very subjective description.  However,  there is a course of analysis
that may be illuminating.


     I would ask the owner to describe how much the timbre of a note changes
as additional force is used to play it.  Of course it will get louder, but
will the tonal quality of the note exhibit increasing "brilliance" (overtone
predominence),  as the key is played from ppp to FFF?  This is the sort of
thing most owners don't think of, but are capable of hearing if focussed on
it.
   Once a customer can recognize a tonal range, or lack of it,  then they may
be able to tell us what they want.

Regards,
(and no, there is no piano course at Vanderbilt yet!, but working on it)

Ed Foote
Precision Piano Works
Nashville, Tn.