[pianotech] finding the strike line

[David Love]

When adding transition bridges on these boards have you found it worthwhile
to consider altering the strike point in the transition section?

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Ron Nossaman
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 1:51 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] finding the strike line

Gene Nelson wrote:
> Hello list,
> I am curious if anyone uses a math model for finding the strike line and 
> arrives at a line that gives the best tone.

Hi Gene,
No mathematical model really works to any precision for a 
number of reasons, most not realistically measurable. Like 
Dale said, it's by ear. The higher in the scale you go, the 
more critical the strike point becomes, in general. Dale 
mentioned the bridge line, and that certainly has something to 
do with it, but I'm finding the soundboard response is a 
bigger factor. In the high compression boards we've all worked 
on these many years, the strike point producing optimal tone 
in the top third of the scale rarely produces a straight line. 
In a good RC&S board, even when the speaking length 
progressions aren't significantly different from the original, 
the strike point target gets much wider, and deviations from 
optimal through the killer octave range become much harder to 
discern. I find that with my RC&S boards, I can just hang a 
straight strike line through the top third and not lose enough 
to be worth the trouble to custom fit the strike line every 
third note. The more of these boards I build, the more amazed 
I am at how very many of the problems we take for granted as 
something we have to work hammers around with a conventional 
soundboard assembly through the top half of the scale are 
predominately soundboard inefficiencies.

I know, that's just WRONG by everyone's experience - until 
they work on a few RC&S boards and start noticing differences.

My take,
Ron N