[CAUT] Accujust

[Jeff Tanner]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <pmctooner at cfl.rr.com>
To: <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 09, 2009 9:22 AM
Subject: [CAUT] (no subject)


> To get back to the original complaint of "plate ringing" in the Baldwin 
> piano, I presume the issue is with the SD10.
> Respectfully submitted,
> P McCutcheon, former technician to the design engineer of the SD and SF10 
> pianos at Baldwin.


No. I've observed it in every Accujust Baldwin I've ever tuned.  At the 
university, we had 15 Ls and 3 SF-10s.  The L's had it as much as the SFs. 
In fact, I think I described earlier that I did my audition tuning on one of 
the L's there and was particularly stricken by all the non-musical noise I 
heard.  Up until then, my experience with the Accujust Baldwins was quite 
limited.  My church has an SD-10, and I have one other customer with one as 
well. I did tune another SD-10 (new at the time) for a concert about 12 
years ago (that piano was not a good example for Baldwin).  Maybe 20 years 
ago I tuned an SF-10 in a church.  I found it pretty offensive.  Other than 
that, my experience is with an R or two.  I believe all my other Baldwin 
grands predate Accujust.  We just don't see that many of the artist series 
Baldwins.  Yamaha and Kawai began really cutting into their market beginning 
about the time the Accujust was implemented.

I just went over to our church and experimented a little.  I only had a few 
minutes, so I didn't mute out the rear segment.  But I muted as many as I 
could with my hands while playing notes at different volumes.  I muted 
different sections but couldn't mute them all. What I hear is NOT 
sympathetic vibrations from the non speaking lengths - I hear that as well, 
but this is IN ADDITION to the ringing backlengths.  I rapped on the plate 
with my knuckles, and there it was.  I rapped on top of the hitch pins, and 
the sound was the same as rapping directly on the plate.  Sounds similar to 
the word "clock" and it echoes (differently from the singing backlengths - 
it is much lower in pitch).  It is the sound I hear with every hammer 
strike, especially in the treble section. At least it may be more noticeable 
there as the pitch of the strings moves away from the pitch of the plate 
ring. I've not paid as much attention to it in the tenor or bass, probably 
because it isn't as annoying there.  But it may be there. It is different 
from the percussive hammerstrike you hear from other pianos.  Yes, the plate 
struts ring, but at a different pitch than what I'm hearing.  I tried 
dampening the struts  near where I was playing the notes. The plate ring 
remained.  I tried dampening the capo bar.  That didn't stop it either.  It 
is not a sympathetic vibration.  It is the sound of the hammerstrike being 
transferred to the plate.  In fact, the slightest action noise is amplif..., 
uh, er, transduced? and echoes loudly.  The key hitting the keybed echoes 
loudly, but striking the key without allowing it to hit bottom still 
produces the plate resonant noise that is different.

No, I don't have the equipment that would be needed to record it.  When it 
comes to technology, the newest recording equipment I have still uses 
cassette tape and I don't have the equipment necessary to convert analog 
signal to digital.  Life happened a few years ago and I had to stop spending 
money on those kinds of luxuries.

I was merely throwing out the idea that it makes the most sense to me that 
the percussive strike is being transferred through the accujust hitch pins, 
which allow more free vibration at the point of contact with the strings 
than if the strings were pinched to the plate.  Just like grunting the stob.

Jeff