Wretched S&S & Yamahas

[Newton Hunt]

Hi Ron,

Have you installed a set of "soft" hammers on a Yamaha or
Kawai?

Ron Overs wrote:
> 
> Newton, Terry and list,
> 
> Newton wrote;
> 
> (Regarding Yamaha pianos)
> 
> >I prefer the richer, warmer,
> >more mellow sound more common to American and European pianos.
> >
> >All you need to do is change the hammers to Abels, Isaacs or
> >Ronsons.
> >What you get will astound you.
> 
> Terry replied;
> 
> >I have heard that said. . .  I have also
> >heard that because of the thicker Yamaha soundboard (because, at least in
> >part, of its softer rim) the piano really needs the harder hammer to do
> >whatever its supposed to do. Does the piano still have good power with the
> >replacement hammers (what about Renner)?
> 
> I have no doubt that a more resilient hammer set will improve the
> tonal situation. But the sound board design also is at the root of
> the Yamaha tone problem - perhaps more so than the rim. The less than
> dense rim will influence the sustaining qualities through hysteresis
> losses, but the panel itself (and its ability to move, in particular)
> in conjunction with the choice of hammer will determine the tonal
> characteristics.
> 
> The Yamaha typical thin tone with a lack of fundamental has as much
> to do with the high sound board impedance, in the bass and tenor
> sections in particular. A typical Yamaha sound board panel is 9 mm
> thick, right to the perimeter, everywhere.
> 
> As with Kawai pianos, it appears that the sound board panel comes out
> of the planer, and to a set thickness, only to be inserted into an
> 'instrument' without any further profiling.
> 
> We are presently converting a G2 Yamaha to a floating board design
> around note A1, and tapering the perimeter adjacent to the bass
> bridge and at note B27 on the long bridge. A bridge extension was
> installed at note A#26 (to make the upper end of the bridge cross two
> ribs), to raise the sound board impedance at the upper bass bridge
> area (this area typically has an impedance value which is too low in
> many pianos - resulting in a poor crossover). Furthermore, we have
> inserted a sound board cutoff bar across the bass corner and the ribs
> will be pared back to terminate at the cut off bar (the cutoff bar in
> this modification is fixed onto the upper surface of the sound board,
> since we are using the original board - this also allows us to bolt
> the sound board assembly and cutoff to the lower bass strut where it
> crosses the new cutoff bar - for added rigidity at the cutoff). So
> far, this board sounds promising. It no longer sounds 'Japanese' when
> subjected to the 'rap' test. I await the strings to confirm that we
> have eliminated the 'skinny' tone.
> 
> Would anyone like to see an image of the G2 sound board modification
> when its completed? (I will take an overhead of the board). Let me
> know if you are interested using the email link below (the '?subject'
> suffix of the link will automatically fill out the subject field of
> the email).
> 
> mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au?subject=Please_Send_G2_Overhead_Image
> 
> Regards to all,
> 
> Ron O
> 
> --
> Overs Pianos
> Sydney Australia
> ________________________
> 
> Web site: http://www.overspianos.com.au
> Email:     mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au
> ________________________

-- 
		Newton Hunt
		Highland Park, NJ
		mailto:nhunt@jagat.com