Sometimes. I have had experiences where it was a benefit and others where it wasn't and, as I mentioned, have had some situations where I was asked to remove them because they were either too hard or too noisy, or both. Like all things touch related there is a personal element to this. It's not the end of all of unclear tone, better sound, better feel, just another option. Personally, I'm still waiting to hear how they help reform lost crown on old soundboards. Kidding, of course. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Jim Busby Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 10:31 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Vertical Touchweight David, I regularly replace everything, when possible, with Crescendo punchings and it does make a positive difference. I have a gauge that does a simple, yet maybe not too scientific compression test, and most punchings (I haven't tried 'em all!) don't seem to be as dense, or at least "less compressible". Players seem to like this "firm landing", for lack of better words. I've done it on several piano faculty pianos w/o telling them what I did and they all commented something like this "I really like my piano! I feels _____ (add your own word) better, firmer, more control, sounds better..." etc. i.e. they all liked the results but couldn't really put a finger on one thing. The new S&S punchings and the Kawai and Yamaha 9' pianos also seem to have denser FR punchings than other models. Nearly ALL uprights seem to have the "spongier" punchings, so it does seem to help. Jim Busby RPT -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of david at piano.plus.com Sent: Monday, July 06, 2009 10:14 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Vertical Touchweight "Crescendo front rail punchings replaced the spongy "shoe insole" material that came from the factory. What a difference" Floyd, your mention of the Crescendo punchings used on an upright is interesting - I've wondered myself if it would make much difference; the mentions on here seem to have been in relation only to grands. When you said "what a difference!" did you mean specifically from the Crescendo punchings, or from all the other bits too that you mentioned? I suppose with this piano, your work will bring it up to the limits of what's possible for it, get the best that's possible out of it, in terms of action responsiveness. It won't of course change soundboard and scale factors, but it will be very interesting to find out to what extent the piano becomes satisfying to play just through improving the action. Keep us posted David.
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