Heavy Hammers / High Ratio / Ric

[David Love]

Even if saturation were not an issue, it seems that  the upper level that
the piano will produce is limited by the soundboard.  As pianists we know
that beyond ff, many pianos probably don't produce any more sound.  The
board seems to reach a point where it simply cannot put out anything more
without the tone becoming distorted--it becomes just more noise.  You may
play fff or ffff, but the effect of a greater range of loudness must often
be created by either lowering the level of your ff to begin with, liberal
use of the pedal, or the use of psychology--increasing the perceived
loudness by a more vigorous display of physical effort, tricking the
listener/observer into believing that it must be louder.  Combine that with
the fact that you will not be able to play a heavy hammer as softly as a
lighter hammer due to simple mass differences (and assuming that the high
ratio action does not create a slower hammer speed at which you can play),
throw in a little saturation and the net gain might turn out to be a net
loss.     

David Love
davidlovepianos@earthlink.net


> [Original Message]
> From: Bill Ballard <yardbird@vermontel.net>
> To: <davidlovepianos@earthlink.net>; Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Date: 9/24/2003 9:05:00 PM
> Subject: Re: Heavy Hammers / High Ratio / Ric
>
> At 1:32 PM -0700 9/24/03, David Love wrote:
> >My view is, to what benefit?  <snip>Since I've never found any tonal
benefit
> >to very heavy hammers, I wonder why this would be desirable.
>
> I'd guess Ric is being theoretical here. Imagine that the pianist's 
> continuum of key velocity (how fast he can push the parts) can be 
> divided into twenty increments, and if the hammer velocity is the 
> product of the key velocity and the action ratio, then with a higher 
> action ratio, there will be a greater spread between the slowest and 
> fastest hammer velocity and presumably a greater range of whatever 
> tone the hammer will produce (either quantity/volume, or 
> quality/color). Hence a greater range of expression for the pianist's 
> aforementioned key velocity.
>
> Keep the matter hypothetical and you don't have to worry about action 
> saturation, but it still begs David's question: for a high action 
> ratio built for maximum amplification of key velocity, what is it 
> that a heavy hammer has to offer in this situation.
>
> Bill Ballard RPT
> NH Chapter, P.T.G.
>
> "Can you check out this middle C?. It "whangs' - (or twangs?)
>      Thanks so much, Ginger"
>      ...........Service Request
> +++++++++++++++++++++