[CAUT] more problems with the D

[Bob Hull]

David,
When you talk about seating in the capo area, would
that be with a string hook massaging the string upward
near the termination point (like in the agraffe area)?
 

Bob Hull

--- David Love <davidlovepianos@comcast.net> wrote:

> Lack of focus may mean that there is a lot of
> leakage through the
> agraffes and/or capo bar.  This is not unusual on
> Steinways.  I recently
> had a D redone for me by Del Fandrich that had very
> similar problems.
> Modifications of the counterbearing area both in the
> capo and agraffe
> sections and new bridge surface/cap really helped to
> focus the sound by
> eliminating a lot of the noise.   A modified
> soundboard design with
> cutoff bar also helped to eliminate the distortion
> that is sometimes
> present in the middle section and increase the
> sustain through the upper
> end of the piano.   The piano has incredible focus,
> and depth and can be
> made quite "bright", if you want it, without getting
> buzzy.   If your
> piano has poor terminations then focus will be a
> problem and it will be
> exacerbated by harder or brighter sound.  While the
> real fix may be more
> involved than you are able to go without some major
> surgery, you might
> be able to at least temporarily address the problems
> by seating at the
> bridge, and capo-though my experience is that it
> will not last.   A
> slightly softer hammer will help to reduce the noise
> but, as you have
> seen, at the price of perceived power.  You can
> bring the brightness
> back with a couple small drops of acetone keytop
> solution (I use 1
> keytop to 12-16 oz of acetone, many people use a
> stronger solution of
> 8oz but I prefer a weaker one)/  The focus, but the
> focus problem is a
> bigger one.  
>  
> If the terminations are good, then lack of focus can
> mean that the
> hammers just aren't hard enough or shaped properly
> or fitted properly to
> the strings.  I would, of course, check those along
> with string seating
> first.
>  
> For design issues that address these problems check
> Del Fandrich or Ron
> Nossaman's posts on the subject.    In my opinion,
> that's the state of
> the art.  
>  
> David Love
> davidlovepianos@comcast.net 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: caut-bounces@ptg.org
> [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of
> Wimblees@aol.com
> Sent: Thursday, October 07, 2004 2:45 PM
> To: caut@ptg.org
> Subject: [CAUT] more problems with the D
>  
> Two problems with the D. (Yes the same one)
>  
> First, I misinterpreted the faculty's comments. It
> wasn't "brassy" as
> such, as much as it lacked focus. I perceived this
> to mean to bright. So
> I voiced it down. But now he says it has lost it's
> power. He says the
> hammers will never come back. Is he right, or is
> there a way to get the
> power back on without them becoming too brassy?
>  
> The other problem, which I also misunderstood, is a
> noisy action. He
> said something about it when he complained about
> uneven voicing with the
> soft pedal on, but I missed his comments. I compared
> the action noise
> with that of the other D, and there does seem to be
> a little more action
> noise. I've narrowed it down to when the hammer
> returns, kind a of a
> mild knocking sound. I tried voicing up the wippen
> cushion, but that
> didn't do anything. Could it be that the back under
> key felt is too
> hard? Would that solve the noisy action? (remember,
> this piano is less
> than 2 years old. 
>  
> Wim 
> Willem Blees, RPT
> Piano tuner/technician
> School of Music
> University of Alabama
> 


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