Hi participants :) Just thought an attempt at a clarification as to the two "what sounds better concerns" might be in order. As I see it, one position has it that a stiffer shank guarentees a more solid blow to the string, which imparts a clearer, more defined sound.... equated with "sounds better", while the other position has it that there is a measureable increase in the lower fundementals when a thinned shank is used which is also equated as "sounding better" Seems like a classic tradeoff situation to begin with, as it goes to conflicting attributes relating to the moment of contact between hammer and string. As far as lower fundementals argument is concerned... both the increase in lower fundementals, and the <<on the table>> explaination for why it happens (i.e. the wiggle) seem to correspond fairly well with the idea that hammer voicing manipulates the degree of strength of differing partials for the string being sounded.... so it would seem on the surface of things that this could be satisfactorilly addressed from a voicing point of view. Not really mentioned or gone into much in all this is the actual sound contribution the shank itself makes. Actually... that shouldnt be underestimated. Critics of the modern piano often site that the overall sound of the modern piano is dominated by just plain old noise, and I think impact noise qualifies as part of this area of criticism. The various << Thuds >> if you will, of parts banging on each other, and reverberating set up a kind of base line set of tones that get blended into the frequencies of the strings. How much (and for how long) these actually affect the overall sound of the piano while playing is another question, but there can be no doubt that significant variances in hammer shank frequencies are noticble soundwise, as is the difference between the sound made by a hard keyfront cushion vs a soft cushion. Personally, I opt for stiff shanks, and as solid as I can get away with center pining. And my reasoning is simply to get the most solid precise blow as possible as that provides the most consistantly clean sound possible at various levels of play. Thats my experience fwiw at this point in time. Cheers RicB Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html
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