Changing FR felts

[Jerry Anderson]

Avery wrote:

>A somewhat related question. Would doing the same thing (changing
>the FR felts) also affect the way the pianist perceives the touch? That
>isn't really the correct word, but a customer the other day complained
>about her B feeling almost like it would feel if she were playing on a
>table; a hard, percussive type of feel.
> I assume changing the felt would improve that because of the
>compression of the old felt. Or could it be something else?

Doug Richard has added an experience:

>  The front rail felts were VERY firm because of the years of pounding.
>  re were two symptoms: an indescribable transient shock was felt on
>  the keys when the piano was played, and well as an audible "sound"!
>  The sound was the most annoying part.  Once the felts were replaced,
>  it was like a different piano.  The best I can figure out, the extra
>  firm felt allowed the keys to excite the soundboard through the frame,
>  and the lack of cushion in the felt changed the feel of how the key
>  stopped.


Excessively hard felts are definitely annoying and changing them will
improve the feel of an action.  The fact that the felts have become this
hard, however, suggests that this is an older or heavily played instrument,
so I wouldn't propose a simple change of front rail felts without a
complete control of the condition of the action and it's regulation.
When a pianist says that an instrument has a hard feel,  she could
be refering to any number of problems, lack of touch depth or too
much striking distance for example, or perhaps too much action noise
or looseness from any number of sources.  It's always embarassing
to propose one solution, and then realize that it was something else,
so be careful and ask lots of questions before plunging in.

Carefully regulated and voiced concert instruments present a different
situation, where changing felts can be used as a special procedure to obtain
a special sound, as opposed to curing a problem.  As I said in an
earlier post, changing front rail felts can alter the tone.  Any change
in tone will change the way a good pianist plays, so he will also precieve
it as a change in touch.

The technician who traveled to Paris with the late Michelangeli and his
Steinway, for his final concert here (I'm sorry but his name escapes me), came
equipted with an alternate set of front rail punchings.  I learned afterwards
from the stage manager at the Salle Pleyel that Michelangeli tried his
piano in the morning, and being very sensitive to this element of
regulation asked that the front rail felts be changed.  The technician
dutifully changed the set and re-regulated the touch depth accordingly.
When the maestro came back, he tested the result....and decided that he
preferred the original felt!  If you ever get into one of these situations
you may want to take the precaution of keeping the old felts in order,
it could save you a lot of time.

Jerry Anderson