downbearing... (long) side note

[Brian Trout]

Hi all,

Just as a sort of side note,

It's interesting to see others talk about the things that go wrong in tone
production.  Things like "there's no power", or "there's no projection", or
"it doesn't sing", etc., etc.

I had a 10 year old Steinway B a couple of weeks ago that I was called to
look at, and give my opinion of what might make this piano better.  It's
dead.  It's one of the most dead pianos I've ever heard. In the killer
octave area, sustain times are probably about 1/3 of what you might expect,
even when plucking the string.

It's had numerous suggestions from a variety of technicians, young and old,
new and experienced.

Of course, it's been suggested that the hammers be 'voiced', and that the
action be regulated, and that the strings be seated on the bridge, and on,
and on.

But one very small test, and it doesn't even take but a few seconds to
conduct, heck, you don't even have to get down under the piano to do it...
is to simply pluck a few strings and listen.  What happens?

If the string had good sustain and a nice long decay time when plucked, (but
not when played), then all of the voicing and regulating, etc. will be
likely to bring a significant improvement.

If when plucked, the string gives the same lifeless tone with a short
sustain and a quick decay, regardless how much voicing and regulating and
string seating, and dead chicken sacrifices, the piano will be dead.

I've seen what happens when technicians do not acknowledge problems that
relate to crown and downbearing and basic soundboard design and structure.
It frustrates the technician, it frustrates the customer, and the piano
never arrives at what anyone thinks is really good, although the technician
has to pretend he improved it a lot if he expects to get paid (willingly).

When dealing with the customer, (the B that I looked at, that is), I was
very up front about the whole thing.  It did have a real set of fluff-balls
for hammers.  It did need regulating.  It did need voicing.  And I did tell
them that those things could help to improve the sound of their piano.  But
I also pointed out that there were some things such as soundboard crown,
downbearing, basic construction and scale design that would remain the same,
and that things like overall resonance, body, and sustain would not change
significantly even with all of the action and voicing work.  (I did mention
that major improvements in all of the above could be done for a price, but
soundboard replacement was not an option for this particular customer.)

I do have some affiliation with the local Steinway dealer.  But I refuse to
tell a customer that I can do things I know darn well that I cannot.  I will
not promise that I can cure all that ails that piano with a little lacquer
and some basic action work.  It goes deeper.  Can I improve it?  Absolutely.
But budgets do set limits of where we can go.  I'm just not interested in
playing little head games.

Not to belittle efforts of others who take such instruments and maximize the
tone that can come forth from not so great instruments.  I believe such a
person as Roger Jolly could make the piano sound pretty good.  But I believe
that the very same B with a new soundboard from one of the top builders,
Roger could make into a phenomenal instrument.

Piano tone production has a number of elements, none of which can suffer
without affecting the overall sound picture.  For great sound, you need a
great board, a great string scale, great strings, a great hammer, a great
voicing, a great action, a great regulation, a great keyboard, a great
overall design and construction, and a great player.  ( I left a few things
out, but you get the point.)  If any link in that chain is weak, the whole
of sound production is weakened.   We may tend to emphasize what we have
come to be our specialty or what we may believe to be the 'most' important,
but in reality, it's all important.

There I go again, spouting off...

Someday, I need to take a class in brevity!  I wonder if there's one at
Arlington this year?...

Best wishes to all,

Brian Trout
Quarryville, PA
btrout@desupernet.net