Voicing M&H BB

[Farrell]

WOW, what a wonderful question. If I were a real experienced pro, I'm sure I
would have a good answer for all occasions this happens. I can only tell you
what happened in this situation.

The owner asked me about cleaning strings. I told him that much of string
cleaning was cosmetic, but that it can affect string clarity also. He then
explained that he was looking for a much crisper "Yamaha"-type sound. Then I
explained to him that restringing the plain wires would not do that for him.
I told him that voicing was what was needed to "brighten" the piano tone. I
further explained that the piano belly has inherent properties and an
associated sound - and that you can brighten this piano by voicing, but you
will always be within a range of sounds that are restricted by the belly
design, i.e. you can make the M&H brighter, but you will not make it sound
like a Yamaha - because it is not a Yamaha.

I WISH I had 35 years of experience behind me and right there and then I
would have said a lot more about condition of the soundboard and bridge, in
this case - original construction of the soundboard and bridge, and less
about voicing his current hammers and more about the possibility of hammer
replacement. I think I am in good shape with this particular client, because
the big picture of what we talked about was that new treble strings will not
get him what he wants, but rather it will require changes with the hammers.
He knew I was short of time during our appointment, so if he wants to pursue
this further, I think I am OK spending a bit of time examining the
soundboard and bridges to make sure there is nothing obviously wrong with
these systems, without looking like a dope because I had not looked closely
at that before.

Does that cover it? Maybe some more experienced techs can chime in.

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles Neuman" <piano@charlesneuman.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 27, 2001 7:33 PM
Subject: Re: Voicing M&H BB


> Terry,
>
> I'm curious, from a business point of view, how this situation works:
> What do you tell the customer after inspecting the piano? Do you say
> you'll think about it, consult other people, or research it further?
> I've always been curious how a situation like this is handled, where the
> tech needs time to think or research but doesn't want to come off
> looking like they don't know what they are doing.
>
> Charles Neuman
> PTG Assoc, Long Island - Nassau
>