Journal Articles

[Mark Cramer]

Fred,

I continually appreciate and admire your willingness to "go it alone." You
must be a brute for punishment!  :>)

In any case, the only complaints I've received from professional artists
about our primary concert piano were "it won't play soft," and "it won't
play soft"...and they were absolutely right!

The most recent was an impromptu gig, I had recently filed the hammers and
was allowing them to settle in before needling . Very sorry to have left the
instrument in this shape for such a lovely player.

The prior was a number of years back, during my season of "safety
regulating," and 3mm let-off.

BTW, I understand and agree with points being raised on both sides,
nonetheless, for concert instruments, "performance" is the order.

(Sometimes when at a loss as to what can be done (rabbit in the hat?) to
make a mediocre action more to a (capable) pianists liking, fine let-off
adjustment (along with some friction treatment of knuckles and key-pins) and
some shallow crown needling, may be the "safest" thing one can do...IMHO)

For those in extreme climates (several of you mentioned) you may find this
simple approach sustainable:

For most of the flock; 3-2-1mm, bass through treble. If regulating outside
the heating season, add 1 mm all the way across; seasonal compensation.

For the piano faculty and graduate students, I try (I said "try") ride herd
on the after-touch adjustments mid-winter. If out-of-necessity, they're
being regulated over summer, add the "1mm safety margin" and follow up in
the winter. It's usually close, (IOW our seasonal variance is 1mm) though
drop is not.

And for recital pianos, eye-balling A/T settings is just part of the
pre-concert obsession.

I do have a nagging question though;

Upon my arrival (6 years ago), I noticed a regulating trend that seemed
nothing, if not deliberate:

Pianos had been regulated for very, very close let-off (ala; Fred S.)
however drop was uniformly about 1/4," and rep. springs were fairly hyper.
(presumeably the wide drop was compensation for the strong spring settings?)

Can anyone tell me, was/is this a popular regulating style? Taught at
conventions? By manufacturers?

I was initially timid to change it. Didn't want to undo someone else's very
meticulous work, without understanding what they were trying to acheive.
However, the "notchiness" of the wide drop setting finally got to me, and I
eventually conformed things to my own narrow (pardon the pun) understanding.

Can anyone shed light on this for me, otherwise I carry on happily as above.

thanks,
Mark Cramer,
Brandon University




-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org]On Behalf Of
Fred Sturm
Sent: Monday, May 31, 2004 10:02 AM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: Re: Journal Articles


--On Sunday, May 30, 2004 10:38 PM +0200 Richard Brekne
<Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no> wrote:

> Over to Jim Hudsons article tho... Dont you think a whole 3 mm letoff is
> a bit overkill on the safe side ?  Where do you generally like letoff and
> drop yourself, and why ?
>
> Interesting to find so much variance in this seemingly simple point.
> Cheers
> RicB

	I can understand and easily accept a more conservative approach to letoff
than my own. But are any of you really advocating 3 mm (=1/8") letoff in
grands? And in concert grands in particular? Seriously? Are you really
contending you ever need that much of a safety margin?
	I find this hard to believe, regardless of extreme seasonal changes. 1.5 -
2 mm / 1/16" is plenty of margin for any grand in my experience, and in the
opinions of every manufacturer I am aware of. A caveat being condition of
the regulation button felt. If every, say, quarter turn of the button
produces the same change in letoff distance, the felt is in good shape. If
it doesn't, you need to address that problem, and regulating close letoff
without addressing that problem is quite risky (how would I know that?) If
there are even moderate dimples in the felt, iron or sand and iron. Ditto
for fuzzy felt: iron it. I guess knuckle condition and a few other factors
that aren't coming to mind instantly would also come into play, but one
assumes that one has dealt with all those when working with a concert
instrument, yes?
	Personally, I am convinced that close letoff is one of the most basic
elements of good concert regulation, taken in conjunction with voicing that
is even and has a good gradiant. The rest of regulation is based on that
fine letoff (drop, aftertouch, check, etc are adjusted to match). It isn't
just a matter of ability to get pppp without the risk of the note failing
to speak (though that is important). It's fine control of melodic lines,
and, particularly, fine control of the relative prominence of individual
tones played simultaneously. The fine muscular coordination required to
make, say, all voices of a four part WTC fugue sound as individual lines is
helped enormously by that final 0.5 mm closer to the string (ie, 1.5 mm as
opposed to 2 mm, or 1 mm as opposed to 1.5). I think most really
accomplished pianists rely on the ability to make fine adjustments to
acceleration of the key/hammer during the entire keystroke, and
particularly during the very last portion - where drop screw and letoff
button have been contacted.
	At any rate, I am happy to go on record anywhere stating that 3 mm is
utterly unacceptable as a standard for letoff on a concert instrument. I
can think of no circumstances that would justify such a standard. I can see
room for argument as you get to the range of 1 to 2 mm, and less than 1 mm,
though possible, is definitely risky.
	But 3 mm? Seriously?
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
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