shock absorber

[David Love]

Making the right kind of cushion is the challenge as, let’s face it, many
voicers can’t tell the difference between a hammer which flexes in the
shoulders and one which is softened in the crown.  Thus the approach for a
too hard hammer is often to simply needle the crap out of the crown.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work and as the hammer develops it will sound
mushy and inflexible (meaning too soft on a soft blow but harsh on a loud
blow) rather than simply too harsh overall.  

 

Creating a flexible shoulder is often something that you can’t necessarily
hear at first until you release the final bit of tension from nearer the
crown, so it can sound like nothing is happening when, in fact, something
is.  Therein lies some of the art as you need to be able to feel the
consistency of the felt through the needles much like you learn to feel the
pin move through the tuning hammer.  A skilled voicer can get the
consistency reasonably close without ever listening to the hammer but just
by the feel of the needles in the felt.  

 

I can’t really say what actually happens to the hammer string contact and
whether it’s more like a shock absorber or more like storing energy
(although the storage concept eludes me somewhat consider the length of time
of hammer contact and the ability of the hammer to “return energy to the
string”).  I can say that with a more flexible shoulder you can feel the
bounce as if the two springs (hammer and string) are somehow more equal or
balanced.  It’s not surprising, then, that a stiffer string scale would
accommodate, actually require, a stiffer or firmer spring in the hammer.

 

Which brings me to the final point.  Since the stiffness of the string
spring (and accompanying soundboard spring, let’s not forget) varies from
piano to piano, and since many of the pianos we like have relatively low
tension scales with light and fairly flexible soundboards, why do the hammer
makers, for the most part, make only hammers that seem to be tailored for
scale tensions and soundboard springs that are for the most part in the
minority?  

 

So many questions, so few answers.  

 

Thanks again Ray!  

 

David Love
davidlovepianos at comcast.net
www.davidlovepianos.com 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of andré oorebeek
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 10:27 AM
To: Pianotech List
Subject: Re: shock absorber

 

 

On Oct 19, 2008, at 11:17 PM, BobDavis88 at aol.com wrote:





In a message dated 10/18/2008 2:38:30 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
oorebeek at planet.nl writes:

Only part of the hammer is the shock absorber, but it is the  most important
part of the hammer and the basis for a decent voicing.

Andre - 

 

Would you mind elaborating? Maybe a difference in definition here, but I
think of a shock absorber (as on a car) as a mechanism to convert energy
into heat (through hydraulic means). This would seem to me the antithesis of
what we want, which is a loss-less means of storing energy and returning it
to the string over a varying (and adjustable) period of time.

 

Bob Davis

 

Hi Bob and Listers.

 

Just to make sure we understand each other :

As we all know, a brand new hammer basically needs two voicings : 

 

1. the first voicing, during which we apply a cushion, the shock absorber

2. the second voicing, during which we even out the highs and the lows,
adjust tonal volume, make the left pedal voicing and apply 'cosmetics'. 

 

As the new hammer is 'usually' stone hard, or at least too hard (or so it
should be), the tone will be loud, nasal and shrill.

That is because the higher partials predominate.

To make the tone more pleasant and agreeable we need to create some lower
partials as well.

Therefor we make a 'cushion' and the cushion area is between the basis of
the hammer and the crown.

The cushion becomes in fact the shock absorber and acts as a 'go between'
between the loaded and powerful basis, the "battery", and the sensitive
crown and near-crown area.

 

 

To make the 'right' cushion is, according to me, the most difficult thing
about voicing.

It is about creating the 'right' tone, the 'right' balance between power,
loudness, and that in great variety, according to a multiple taste.

Making a good and healthy cushion/absorber in a professional way (time
wise), requires great skill and vast experience.

 

 

friendly greetings
from
André Oorebeek

Antoni van Leeuwenhoekweg 15

1401 VW, Bussum

the Netherlands

 

tel :    +31 35 6975840

gsm : +31 652 388008


"where Music is, no harm can be"

 

 

 

 

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