Quiet The PianoDisc!

[Tom Servinsky]

In addition to what Ed said, contact Markertek 800 522 2025 which handles 
industrial video/audio supplies. Order the 3" acoustic baffle foam ( under 
$100 for 2  3'x5' pieces) to be customed cut for the under side of the 
piano. Actually, the majority of sound that is  from the sound bouncing off 
of the floor. The harder the floor, the more bounce.Once the lid is 
completely closed and the bottom side completely covered, the volume level 
will decrease an additional 30 -50% more.
Using a very sharp razor blade, cut the baffles to 1" wide and longer than 
the triangular wedge shapes areas where the soundboard is exposed 
underneath. The good news is that this will only affect the audience and not 
the player.  Personally, I'm not a big fan of "over" voicing the hammers to 
achieve the desired volume (in these types of situations) due it's negative 
effect on the player. The baffle will enable you not to "over" voice the 
hammers and keep everyone happy.
There's a psychological issue happening in these types of situations:
 If someone is playing the piano they expect the piano to be heard.
When the player system is playing, they usually expect the piano to behave 
like their stereo system and be able to accommodate the most quiet 
background effects.
 .
One sheet of baffle foam can make enough baffles for 2 GH1 pianos .
Tom Servinsky
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <A440A@aol.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:57 PM
Subject: Re: Quiet The PianoDisc!


>
> << I have one of those PianoDisc customers who wants the piano to play 
> REALLY
> quietly. Unfortunately, it's a bright YAMAHA G1 in a really bouncy room 
> with
> an 18' ceiling. I'm thinking of stuffing some carpet pad above the beams,
> padding the caster cups and maybe voicing down the hammers. Would string 
> felt
> help? Any other ideas? It's a new PianoCD unit which adjusts to quite a 
> low
> volume, but she wants it REAL low! >>
>
> Greetings,
>    My suggestion is to first, voice the hammers,way down.  The second
> suggestion is to voice the hammers even further.  The G1's I have seen 
> are, for some
> reason, being sold with hammers in them that are insanely hard for this 
> size
> piano.
>   The last one I voiced for a customer, (who was really happy with the
> results), took about 30 jabs on each shoulder, with a 13mm long needle, 
> beginning
> with the low shoulder and working my way up to just short of the strik 
> point.
> Even then, there were several hammers that needed a long needle coming in 
> at
> the 11:00 and 1:00 points so that I was hitting a crunchy spot under the 
> strike
> point.
>   The hammer area around 3:00 and 9:00 felt like a marshmallow, the strike
> point was springy, and the piano was mellow until you reached FF.  This is 
> not
> what the Yamaha factory recommends, but I have found it to bring out the
> widest tonal range in these pianos, as well as helping the bass break 
> evenness.
> The players also feel it makes the piano much more controllable.
>    I think someone has confused loudness for power.
>
> Ed Foote RPT
> http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
> www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
>
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