US made Yamaha upright

[gordon stelter]

Thanks Del! Great commentary!
--- Delwin D Fandrich <pianobuilders@olynet.com>
wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "gordon stelter" <lclgcnp@yahoo.com>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: July 30, 2002 10:02 PM
> Subject: Re: US made Yamaha upright
> 
> 
> > Dear List,
> >      I just tuned a new 48 or 50" Yamaha upright
> at a
> > church ( forget what model ).  It was clean, shiny
> and
> > new, and had a uniform  action.   But, frankly,
> the
> > tone lacked "depth". The words "Two Dimensional"
> > and "Superficial" come to mind. For all of their
> other
> > problems, a nasty, clunky, filthy old American
> upright
> > from the teens still has more "depth" of tone,
> more
> > resonance than this thing does!  That is my
> subjective
> > opinion. Can someone put it into objective,
> scientific
> > terms and offer an explanation or remedy?
> >      Respectfully,
> >      Gordon Stelter
> 
> The simple answer is:
>     Welcome to the heavy and stiff soundboards/hard
> hammer world.
> 
> The more complex answer is, well, more complex. One
> could easily present a
> three to six hour class--and I have--on the subject
> and not but scratch the
> surface. Suffice it to say that you are hearing the
> result of a variety of
> mass-production techniques and materials all working
> together to give the
> sound you are hearing. Precisely and beautifully
> built but musically flat.
> 
> Changing this would not easy--indeed, well-nigh
> impossible. There is no easy
> fix. Newton has suggested Ronsen hammers and this
> will certainly take of the
> hard edge but you may well lose so much power in the
> process the results may
> not be acceptable. That scale and soundboard were
> not designed to
> accommodate hammers that soft. Besides, the piano
> was probably, at least in
> part, sold on the basis of its great and wonderful
> power and it wouldn't do
> to take that away, now would it?
> 
> Please repeat after me:
>     Power is good! Dynamics are bad!
>     Power is good! Dynamics are bad!
>     Power is good! Dynamics are bad!.....
> 
> The real solution would be to swap out the
> soundboard with one that is a bit
> more flexible and probably a bit lighter, back off
> on the scaling some and
> then use a more resilient hammer; all of which
> working together are better
> suited to the type of dynamic sound you find so
> endearing. This would take a
> bit more time and effort on the soundboard work and
> on both hammer making
> and the voicing, of course, but what you would end
> up with would be a real
> pianoforte instead of a FORTE.
> 
> Regretfully,
> 
> Del
> 


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