BACKCHECKS, BRAINS AND SHINY MEDALS

[oorebeek]

Dear Ed, and dear List(eners)

I will gladly and very carefully repeat what I told here before.
Actually, it was like this:

One day during my last course at the Piano technical Academy, I was =
busy with a CFIIIS.
My teacher, a fantastic! and very famous senior tuner/technician =
called Tsuji-San, gave me some instructions about the "making of =
tone" and tone refinement.
On that day he gave me a lesson about tone quality, how to improve =
tone through tuning and string adjustment. Then, afterwards,  he sort =
of hesitated, started to smile and told me to find some tones that =
sounded softer or.. not as strong sounding as the rest. clear neh?
He then ordered me to pull out the action and put it on a nearby =
bench.
He >gently< pushed down one of the weaker sounding keys so that the =
hammer slowly made it's drop. plock...hammerdrop!
He kept the key pushed down.
In that position the hammer is not checked by the backcheck but just =
resting on the bridge.
Now..he told me to look at the very lower end of the hammer tail =
and..at the same time at the very upper part of the backcheck.
He asked me this question: "how much space, how many mm.(darn euro's) =
is/are there between hammer tail and backcheck? I looked carefully, =
and told him I saw about say 4 mm space.
Then he took out a ebony hardwood pipe with a rectangular hole in it, =
he put the pipe over the backcheck and turned the pipe around to the =
left about two times. In other words: he screwed the
backcheck up with to complete turns. get it?
Then he asked me again "how much space, how many mm. is/are there =
between hammer tail and backcheck? I looked carefully, and told him I =
saw about say 2 mm space.
Now, he told me to put the action back, readjust the turned up =
backchecks and also make sure that the hammers would not make the =
slightest contact with the backchecks.

(by putting one of your hands on the top of the hammers and with the =
other hand depressing the keys. If you push a little on the hammers =
while moving the keys up and down you might feel contact between =
backchecks and hammer tails so you know that you make the hammer =
check bigger. If you do this exactly right, the distance will be =
accurate and perfect {after allready having made a perfect =
regulation!})

Now my teacher asked me to compare the treated (formerly weaker) =
toneswith the rest: lo and behold!! They were just as strong!!
I asked him immediately: how can this be? what happened? He smiled, =
shrugged his shoulders and said that he could not explain.
He did tell me however that the perfect space between hammer tail and =
backcheck should always be >2 mm<.
I do not think that I can tell this event more clearly. This is =
exactly how it happened and I have used the trick many times. As long =
as there is enough space to make a change, you will have a result. Be =
careful! if the backcheck is too high on the metal thread and you =
make attempts to rotate the backcheck down, there is the possibillity =
of killing the thread and the backcheck.
So don't go too far, you will hear the wood groaning.
I have now explained my little story a couple of times. Everybody =
thinks that I am so stupid as not to have checked whether the hammer =
touches the backcheck!
Allthough I look basically OK.. I am very dumb....but not that bad.
Check it out.
If one of you can give a decent explanation, another mystery will =
have been solved and we will all blow the horns, raise our flags and =
receive shiny medals!


>     I am starting to wonder if I am reading this right.      Voicing by
>backcheck?
>I have not been able to tell a difference in tonal strength or =
composition by
>moving the backcheck to different positions, UNTIL I get it close enough =
to
>drag on the tail as the hammer launches.  Once clear of that,  I find no
>difference in sound.
>
>     Might I respectfully ask that  we are given a more specific =
description
>  than "the sound is stronger"?  and under what type of play?  I was once
>faced with a real repetition freak, only way he was happy was with the
>hammers checking way up by the string.  The next teacher to use the studio
>complained about there being little power on fast repetitions.
>    Is it possible that the lost of power(tone, 'stronger sound',  =
whatever
>it is that is changing),  is because there is a effectivly a very short =
blow
>distance on all but the first note struck?
>
>
>
>Best regards,
>Ed Foote



friendly greetings from:

Andr=E9 Oorebeek
CONCERT PIANO SERVICE
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
email: oorebeek@euronet.nl

=83  where MUSIC is no harm can be  =83