Wham Bang

[Ron Nossaman]

At 08:16 AM 11/26/1999 +1300, you wrote: 
>
> Pat, I think a good hard test blow in a controlled environment is different,
> as it is done with a certain amount of restraint.  When many musicians get
> fired up during an actual performance, be it rock, classical or an organ
> recital, another component kicks in.   When I played guitar in a pop group
> (decades ago) I used to thrash the living daylights out of my Fender Strat
> when the adrenaline got going.  Musicians from all quarters are all guilty of
> it - including vocalists, violinists and drummers (especially drummers).  
> During rehearsals and recording sessions all is OK, but "on stage" when the
> lights go up - all hell can break loose and the vocal cords, vellums, bow
> hairs and strings start to take their toll.  Brian 
>  
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pat Neely <<mailto:pneely@thegrid.net>pneely@thegrid.net>
> To: <mailto:pianotech@ptg.org>pianotech@ptg.org
> <<mailto:pianotech@ptg.org>pianotech@ptg.org>
> Date: Friday, 26 November 1999 5:04
> Subject: Re: Wham Bang
>
>>
>> ÿþ 
>> I have and have seen some pretty hard test blows or stablizing blows that it
>> would seem were too hard for any one to be just playing the piano. do we
>> break a lot of strings I haven't heard that to be so , I'm curious, so it
>> must be with the sustain?
>




Aha! So that's what Pat said. Well, Pat, Brian, and anyone else who cares, I
have another little observation or two for you. 

First, it is the sustain pedal. When the damper doesn't come in between strokes
to quiet down the amplitude of the string excursion as it vibrates, it is
inevitable that the hammer will occasionally hit the string as it is at the
highest vertical point in it's excursion. It's already stretched pretty tight
when it gets bashed by the hammer again, which, if the blow is pretty hard, and
the timing is just right, will over tension the string enough that it breaks at
it's weakest point. The string excursion in the bass is wider than anywhere
else in the piano because the strings are longer and the mass is greater in
relation to the core, so string flex at the terminations is greater, and metal
fatigue is probably more advanced as a result. To break strings with any
regularity, the pianist has to habitually keep the dampers out of the way, and
hit the same note(s) hard and in quick succession... sound familiar? 

This same effect can work to our advantage when we're tuning the treble. I've
found that hitting keys not as hard (pounding), but a lot more times, and
quicker, settles and stabilizes them better than anything else I've tried. I
think that's partly because of the above described phenomenon, and partly
because a vibrating string slides past a friction point easier than one that
isn't vibrating.

As to fixing the problem of breakage in the field, has anyone suggested
crippling the tempo pedal? By introducing enough lost motion, we should be able
to get the dampers to just barely (or just barely NOT) clear the strings with
the sustain pedal at full depression. Then, maybe we would get to periodically
rebuild lyres, rather than replacing broken strings. What do you think?


Ron N