[CAUT] Agraffes and dampers

Wimblees at aol.com Wimblees at aol.com
Tue May 15 08:57:02 MDT 2007


In a message dated 5/15/2007 8:22:11 AM Central Daylight Time, 
jwpiano at earthlink.net writes:

Hello list,
This is my first posting to the CAUT list.  I have two questions
1:  How do you keep dampers free from damage when modern music requires 
playing the strings with fingers and the performers paste the damper 
heads with colored stickers, then remove them and tearing felt, etc. 
This is at NYU, but my own experience in music school tells me it must 
be all over.
Alan McCoy, Eastern Washington State, has a very comprehensive do's and don't 
for prepared piano. However, when I showed it to one of the piano professors 
at UA who does this kind of thing, she said it wasn't very good, that there 
are a lot of things that are not dealt with beyond what was allowed. So you 
might want to talk to a professor who knows about prepared pianos. Once you've got 
a policy in place, the next step is to inform the other faculty and the 
students of the policy. You might need to post it in every practice room. That 
doesn't guarantee the students will abide by the policy, but you'll at least 
covered your rear in case anything is damaged beyond repair, or if you have to 
spend too much time and money fixing the problems. 



2:  A  Petrof P131 upright with agraffes to the top has broken every  
string from E6-E7.  The break is at the edge of the bearing before 
entering the agraffe on the speaking side. Any ideas?
It sounds like someone is banging the hell out of this piano. Is this a 
practice room piano, or in a studio or classroom? If it's a practice room, try to 
find out if there is one student who likes to use this piano on a consistent 
basis. I bet you'll find he'sshe's a banger. Other than reducing hammer blow, 
increasing let off, or even reducing key dip, the only thing you can do is keep 
a big supply of 14 to 15 gauge wire around. 
 


Thanks,

Joe Wiencek
jwpiano at earthlink.net

 
 
Willem Blees, RPT
Piano Tuner/Technician
Tuscaloosa, AL



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