The "money octave" or Steinway Tonal Deficit Disorder, STDD for short; crops up anywhere from 5 to 15 years after purchase. It is typically described as a loss of power, more specifically a loss of sustain. I have one I service in advanced STDD stages and only five years old. Apparently Steinway's "Signature Sound" depends on a structural deficiency in that area of the soundboard. I call it planned obsolescence. Variations in onset are probably due to quality of climate and the vagaries of wood quality in the board. As the board appears to be at the ragged edge of structural resistance to down- bearing, these factors become more important in the life-span of the board. Steinways also had a less then beefy belly rail there that has been a suspect in loss of tonal energy as well. A number of tech.s have used the Grijalva belly brace to some decent effect. Fandrich also offers riblets (plans for the DIY guys) that can be retrofitted to boards that have lost the necessary stiffness to act as a diaphragm as opposed to a sonic sink. You can temp them up to the underside of the bridge to judge the effectiveness of placement and glue them after you are satisfied with your configuration. I have also been advised that the Wappin bridge modification has been quite satisfactory for bringing out more tone throughout the treble and that it helps to mask this condition. I personally would start with riblets because it would be difficult to get up there after the belly brace is in. Each additional step will have its incremental, cumulative effect that may get your clients back some of the piano they originally purchased. Wappin modification is visible from above so showing your clients what that would mean visually would probably be best. The testimonials for Wappin tend to be on the rapturous side yet there is a licensing fee and letting down the strings, pulling the old pins and filling the holes and drilling a new three pin configuration to consider in your calculations regarding the cost/benefit ratio. Of-course the proper way to fix this is to send the piano to Nossaman or Erwin for a new board with a redesigned rib pattern, sweeping cut- offs and a fish. Then the problem is gone for good. :-) Good luck and do tell us what you end up doing, Andrew Anderson On Mar 29, 2009, at 7:39 PM, Ken and Sharon Schneider wrote: > > I have several customers that own Steinway D's in there home and > from time > to time are interested in having me re-voice their pianos to build > up the > area of the killer octave. I am reluctant to do this because the > pianos > sound very even going thru these areas. Does the Pianotec treble tone > resonator work in situations such as this? Are there any negative side > effects to it at all? > > -----Original Message----- > From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] > On Behalf > Of pianotech-request at ptg.org > Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2009 6:32 PM > To: pianotech at ptg.org > Subject: pianotech Digest, Vol 5, Issue 396 > > Send pianotech mailing list submissions to > pianotech at ptg.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://ptg.org/mailman/listinfo/pianotech_ptg.org > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > pianotech-request at ptg.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > pianotech-owner at ptg.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of pianotech digest..." > >
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