"Loss of Tone" Complaint

[Joe & Penny Goss]

Hum,
Terry it sounds like the shift to the right just a half of a string has
occured. Filing the hammers may do the trick. If you need more try a hot
iron set on wool across the tip of the hammer. Lightly
now don't over do it.
Joe Goss
imatunr@srvinet.com
www.mothergoosetools.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2001 4:36 AM
Subject: "Loss of Tone" Complaint


> I tuned a 1928 Conover 5' 8" grand yesterday. I have now tuned it three
> times. They tune once a year. When making the appt., the lady asked me to
> clean the piano interior because they had made dust while installing tile
on
> the floor AND because she noticed a loss of piano tone. Actually, she told
> me about the loss of tone thing while on the car phone, so I did not want
to
> have a long conversation - otherwise I may have pointed out that a little
> dust just ain't gonna kill a piano.
>
> Cleaned and tuned piano. The piano appears to suffer from a "loss of tone"
> (after getting dust out - so we know that was not it!!)! This piano
appears
> to be all original with original hammers. It is in just about as good
> condition as any 73 year old all original piano will ever be. It functions
> amazingly well (it's overall condition is about average for a 40 - 50 year
> old piano). The tone is REAL MELLOW. It's like someone put marshmallows
> (fresh) on in place of the hammers. The scale is four sections. The top
two
> are very quiet and super mellow, the bottom two are louder, but not loud,
> and mellow, but not as muffled as the top two.
>
> The soundboard is flat or has just a bit of crown. Downbearing seems real
> good (only had my rocker gauge with me yesterday - it did not seem
> excessive, although there was plenty).
>
> Even in the top two sections, there are a couple-few notes that are a lot
> louder and crisper. It's almost like all the hammers went soft, but a
couple
> had nail polish spilled on them.
>
> Anyway, my overall question is why is this piano like this (I realize that
> is a very nebulous question), and assuming the hammers are the primary
cause
> (I plucked and it seems as though the hammers are the culprit - kinda hard
> to tell though because I cannot pluck as hard as a hammer can hit!) - what
> happens to an old hammer to make it soft?
>
> I am used to old hammers getting really hard - but an old one getting
soft?
> When you use the una-corda everything gets super-duper-incredibly mellow.
> Would chemical treatment likely be of value here? I have never hardened a
> hammer - always steaming or needling.
>
> And now a more global question. What happens to quality hammers as they
age?
> They start out at some level of hardness, but also they will have a good
> deal of tension across the strike point. I suppose this tension is
> responsible for something like "a full development of a pleasing bouquet
of
> partials"? Even if you harden, or soften, or whatever to your liking a 50
or
> 70 year-old hammer, I can only assume that you will never get it back to
how
> it sounded when new (maybe a half-bouquet at best?). It's gotta loose
> ALL/most the tension or whatever after a couple/few decades. So, would it
> not be the case that in almost any situation, even if a piano owner
> generally likes the tone of a piano (hammers look pretty good, but they
are
> 50 years old), that it will likely sound better with new hammers (I
realize,
> not that most people would notice)? What can anyone tell me about how a
> hammer ages?
>
> Thanks big time.
>
> Terry Farrell
>