improving bass tone without replacing strings/hammers?

[thepianoarts]

Steven,

    I have two suggestions which could help with tone clairty and energy. Is
the hammer contacting both wires at the same time? To check this, depress
the damper pedal, and with a wire hook, gently lift the hammer shank and
press the hammer against the bi- or tri-cord wires. Pluck the individulal
wire, and see if one is "leaking". If so, fit the hammer to the contour of
the wires, or at the agraffe, lift the low wire up level with the other one
or two wires. 
    To get out of the piano all that it is capable of, be sure escapment is
happening 'as close as possible'.

As a side note, when twisting bass wire, sometimes we are fooled by the
wrapping direction going one way, and the loop twist going the other. In
other words, don't rely on the loops twist direction at the hitch pin, to
determin the direction to twist the wire. Always check the wrapping.

Dan 

on 8/31/01 4:19 AM, Stephen Airy at stephen_airy@yahoo.com wrote:

> My Ricca has ok tone in the bass, but there are a few
> notes that I cannot seem to improve by twisting the
> strings.  Do you guys have any suggestions?  The bass
> bridge is somewhat cracked in the middle, along
> several notes near the monochord/bichord break which
> is at F#-10/G11, and extending farther up the bichords
> than down the monochords.  Some notes I can't get to
> have as full of a tone as surrounding notes are F9,
> C4, B3, A1 (A#2 sounds OK but wouldn't hurt to have a
> little improvement when playing loud -- sounds ok when
> moderate or soft though), G11, G#12, C16, B15 &
> C#17(lesser extent than C16), the sharps at the upper
> end, but I could probably live with them, and B27, the
> highest note on the bass bridge and highest wound
> string bichord in the piano -- this one has a replaced
> universal string.  Do you guys have any suggestions,
> like things to check or things to do?  Do you think
> epoxying the crack in the bass bridge might help?
> 
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