Steinway flat board

[Horace Greeley]

Wally,

OK, so you've knocked off the big pieces.

Let's look at what you've reported:

>The bearing is not consistent.  The tone is dead in the lower
>treble section.  Ring times in bass are 35-45 seconds, about 30 in the tenor
>decreasing to 20 in the midrange, 6-8 seconds in lower treble, and mostly
>about 5-6 seconds in upper treble until extreme end of piano.
>

This does not sound all that unfamiliar to me.  The next stuff I would
look at, if you have not already, would include:

	- bearing, measured several different ways. I use
	  a combination of methods, most of which have been discussed
	  in the Journal at various times.  The reason is that I like
	  having a more composite picture of what is going on.

	- strike point?  I know, it doesn't affect ring time, but it
	  sure can affect how much you can maximize what _is_
	  there.  (In this catagory, I would include hammer shape,
	  hardness, etc.)

	 - what change, if any, can you effect by changing the position
	  of the nose bolt?  From the sounds of things, even a small
	  change of bearing might be of some use.

If you wind up with little, or negative bearing (and, since this isn't a
Rippen), you may want to see about grinding down the aliquots.  If there
is too much, then shim them up.  In any event, try to get as close as you
reasonably can to about a 1 to 1.5o deflection on a string stretched from
the Capo, across the bridge (from which you have temporarily removed
a couple of sample unisons), and measure the distance from the string
to the top of the aliquot (at the latter's peak) _just_ as the string _first_
touches what is, hopefully, the  leading edge of the bridge.  I look for about
a millimeter or so of deflection.  Others with stronger math skills can
give you a more formal description of this process.  Also, I think Nick
Gravagne
has written about this method in the Journal (within recent memory).

If the board is a flat as you suggest, it may well be that the very best you
can hope to do is to make the poor thing a little more comfortable.  Joel's
point about the theoretically perfect soundboard is well taken, but not
really practical (as he pointed out).  Where that theory is applicable here
is that you may need to make the bearing as nearly a mirror image of
whatever the board is doing in order to get any kind of sound at all.  That
is,
if there is (relatively) little or no stress on the board, it will have the
greatest
chance of being able to produce whatever it is capable of producing.

It always comes as a shock to some folk when they finally realize that not
every piano sounds like Horrorwitz' (and who would want to?).

>Also, I called Steinway, but the party I requested has not called me back
>yet.  Of course, to play the game correctly, I shall try again ....   (sigh)
>

And try, and try, and try....

I hope there is something of value in there for you.

Good luck.

Horace

Horace Greeley

Stanford University
email: hgreeley@leland.stanford.edu
voice mail: 415.725.9062
LiNCS help line: 415.725.4627