PIANOTECH digest 290

[Larry Fisher]

>From: ATodd@UH.EDU (Avery Todd)

>Subject: Sound Clarity for Pianist?

>>I have a dilemma.  My piano (Steinway 'B') has a beautiful tone.  The
>>rebuilder of my piano believes that because of the light hammers he has
>>installed, the hammer comes off the string very fast.  This contributes
>>to a clear tone.
>

There's a tech north of here that likes to remove weight from the action, to
improve tone.  I've tuned one of his ........ uh........ masterpieces, the
hammers were very light, and the keys had most of the leads removed.   The
piano played lickety split, and it tuned up really nice, but in my opinion,
it didn't have the carrying power, the build of tone after attack, or the
satisfaction from playing it that I get when I play other really nice
sounding pianos.

The hammer that comes off the string really fast, isn't dampening the really
high harmonics.  As I understand it, the high harmonics start their journey
down the string to the termination point at the time of attack.  They reach
the termination point, make a return trip back up the string and if they
encounter the hammer still on the string, they're dampened.  If I got this
right, the fundamental and the rest of the lower harmonics take a bit longer
to make the trip since they're moving at a wider amplitude. (dude)

A really light hammer won't have the mass to move the string as much,
therefore, the fundamental will have less amplitude as will all the
consequental  multiples, although not as noticably, since they don't have
that much amplitude to loose in the first place.  The fundamental has a lot
of power to generate lots of air movement.  This is the souce of other tone
creation.  The resonance of the entire piano, the rest of the strings in the
piano, the duplexes, the rest of the room the piano is in, the rattleing
metal sculpture, or chandelier, fallboard hinge and one's nasal hairs are
all excited by power, most likely from the most dominant frequency, the
fundamental.

Yes the piano will sound different.  It will sound really nice, mayhaps, but
it won't have that "gotta die for it sound" when you go with light hammers,
IN MY OPINION!


****************time out for some humor*****************************
>

>From: "DAN G. LITWIN" <71213.1421@CompuServe.COM>

>Subject: Really Pulley Keys


Some really pulley keys    ...................   kinda has a ring to it
..............................   kinda like  Achy Breaky Heart.   The
Dearborn entertainment commitee might take this hummer and run with it, eh??
Achy Breaky Heart is a really stupid tune with an incredibly simple repeated
20 times kinda melody line.  I think my jack in the box had a similar tune.
Uh that's "Pop Goes the Weasel" for those of you who.......never mind.

Lar

                           Larry Fisher RPT, Metro Portland, Oregon's
                  Factory Preferred Installer for MSR/PianoDisc Products
                       phone 360-256-2999 or email larryf@pacifier.com
                            http://pacifier.com/~larryf/homepage.html
(revised 5/96)
                         Beau Dahnker pianos work best under water