Boston front scale noise

[Barbara Richmond]

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Hmmm.  I worked for a Kawai dealer for six years and was quite =
successful at getting plenty of sustain.  It's true that the pianos came =
out of the box sounding pretty clipped, but working on the shoulders =
lengthened the sustain and a bit at the top softened the attack to make =
a real nice sound.   I'll admit that was 1984-1990.  Have the pianos or =
hammers changed a lot since then?

My experience with noise in the front duplex (no matter what brand) has =
almost always been (actually, I can't remember a time when it wasn't) =
the result of  hammers with that "granite sound."  Taking the attack =
down a hair has done the trick.  Now that I've said that publicly, I'll =
probably run into a piano where voicing doesn't take care of the =
problem.  ;-)

Barbara Richmond, RPT




----- Original Message -----=20
  From: Dean May=20
  To: Pianotech=20
  Sent: Monday, September 27, 2004 8:39 AM
  Subject: RE: Boston front scale noise


  Mike B. wrote:

  He called me a couple of days after the tuning and complained that =
when he plays middle c and holds it for a long time the sound becomes =
"discordant".

  =20

  Hi Mike,

  =20

  I find this to be characteristic of many Kawai pianos. And I've seen =
it on the few Bostons I've played as well. Play and hold most any treble =
note and the sustain of the pitch will quickly fade into white noise. =
You'll still hear sound but you won't be able to easily discern the =
pitch of the note you just played. Try running an arpeggio all the way =
up the scale and you find the same thing. The sustain quickly fades into =
white noise and the you'll have a hard time discerning what scale you =
just played.=20

  =20

  If you dampen the front scale noise on that piano you are going to be =
making a major change in the tonal characteristics of it, a change the =
customer may not like.=20

  =20

  I would explain to the customer that what he is doing is not the =
normal way one plays and listens to a piano. There are lots of =
extraneous noises one can find and accentuate in a piano that are =
undesirable. He picked that piano because he liked the way it played and =
sounded. The characteristic he is complaining about is part of the =
overall characteristics of that piano's particular sound that he picked. =
It is a characteristic of Asian pianos, Kawai in particular, to have a =
quick attack and short sustain. There's nothing you can do about it =
(beyond normal seating/leveling of strings and voicing) short of major =
soundboard reconstruction and scale redesign. He should just play it =
normally and enjoy it for what it is.

  =20

  Blessings,

  =20

  Dean

  Dean May             cell 812.239.3359

  PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272

  Terre Haute IN  47802

  =20

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