At 03:49 AM 7/9/2003, you wrote: >I have a question for techs that work on new pianos: What is the incidence >of an identifiable Killer Octave area on a new piano? Let's say the >threshold for its existence will be with voicing efforts - when you need >to "voice the piano down" to blend the weak area (the Killer Octave) into >the rest of the keyboard. Feel free to identify fallboard names (or not). > >And yes, I have an ulterior motive - it has to do with a past technical >presentation at a PTG chapter meeting. > >Anyone? > >Terry Farrell Anyone that was up at 3:49 am thinking about killer octaves is already in enough trouble without me adding to the confusion, but... I find them in a lot of new pianos. Depends on the brand and model, but I almost universally ignore them unless there's a specific complaint. The problem is that killer octaves aren't a yes or no thing. There is a broad sliding scale as to whether it's acceptable or not, how bad it is, where in the scale it occurs (or is worst), how much of it is hammers or duplex noise, and at what volume level it becomes noticeable. Then, of course, they get better or worse with humidity swings, so it's sometimes hard to tell just what you've got. Very often, a killer octave that sounds utterly horrible at high attack levels is quite acceptable when played softly. If the owner doesn't hit the keys hard enough to notice it, for them it isn't a problem. I, on the other hand, make a lot of noise tuning, so I'll find plenty of high attack level problems the owner (or sales staff) isn't aware of. Killer octaves don't seem to get better with age, so what I detect at high attack levels when the piano is new will start manifesting at lower volume levels as the piano ages, and finally become noticeable by the customer one fine static-filled cold winter day a couple of years after the warranty period as she is playing at her customary level, or has taken on more aggressive music. Swell, now what? I find this very frustrating. If I explain the problem early on in response to a customer's observations about the sound in that area, it's universally not believed, but worries the customer (justifiably, I'd say). The dealer doesn't see or hear the problem, naturally. The manufacturer doesn't believe it either, but attempts to honor the warranty by hiring another tech to go look at the piano in expectation of getting better news. The other tech, almost universally knowing nearly nothing about soundboards, will run up a bill of at least a couple of hundred bucks trying to voice the problem away. Sometimes, the customer accepts that, often adopting the other tech as her tuner as a result, and is quite happy until the piano quietly goes out of warranty and the noise slowly becomes noticeable to her one dry winter day, etc. Sometimes, the problem doesn't go away with voicing, and actually becomes more noticeable to the customer. Often, this is as far as it goes. That's it. That's what it's supposed to sound like. If the customer doesn't accept that, the manufacturer will then often ship someone in from another state or even country to work the necessary magic to make the problem go away. More voicing, naturally. Neither of these contract techs makes any attempt to ascertain whether the noise is coming from the soundboard or not. They always go straight for the hammers. The guy brought in from farther away naturally charges more, usually does a fine voicing job, swears the problem was simple and is now fixed (implying that the local tech just didn't know how to fix it and blamed it on the soundboard instead), and rides off into the sunset without ever having looked at the soundboard. The customer, after playing the piano for a few weeks to get used to the different voicing and dynamic response, concludes that the problem is still there. There are a lot of variations on this theme, and some manufacturers are very good about working with you (if they know you and trust your judgement), while others will always insist you don't know what you're talking about, never had that problem even once before in all the thousands of years they've been in business (even when you've done this with them twice a year for the last three years), and will call a REAL tech to fix it. Again, the problem with killer octaves is that they aren't 100% awful, or 100% fine. And as long as most of the technical community doesn't understand the problems, but can make considerable money voicing around them every year as they get worse with age - even to bringing the rest of the piano down to the performance level of the killer octave, it's not going to get a bit better. Ron N
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