convention update

[Ron Koval]

Our Chicago weather came through today.... thunderstorms, sun, clouds, 
humidity, I didn't see any hail, though it was predicted.  Saw Wim last 
night across the room, but didn't talk with him, yet.

I was offsite today, ran into ric Moody and had a nice chat with a few 
people about the weather fluctuations that we get, and the effect on the 
pianos.  Here are my notes off my palm pilot:

stanwood class

There were about  50 people in attendence at Sherwood Academy.  Public 
transportation was used to get most people there, so we got a late start.  
(around 10:00 am)

After a brief introduction of the community center, David Stanwood began.

Hammers, the source of tone production- felt very resiliant.
Hammer weight /felt resiliancy, two variables of voicing.   Voicing with 
needles alone ignores the other half of the equation (weight)

Touch - hammer weight has a huge impact.  Roller bearing is crucial to 
measure hammer/shank combination.  Use terms low/med/high with 1/4 steps 
between to explainn strike weights. (common vocabulary)

Variations can come from density of wood, variations of width, even shanks.  
Heavy hammer will give a great, full fundimental sounding bass.
Humidity can effect weight by as much as one gram in the bass.

Lighter/brighter  heavier/duller  because of the damping effect - heavy 
hammer will stay on the string longer.

Adjust hammer weights.  Each lead adds about .6 grams.

Front weights- too much lead in keys - a lot of energy goes into moving the 
keys, not tone production.  Whippen springs help without inertia but limit 
to 17-20 grams maximum spring help.


Leverage ranges from 5 to 1 to 7 to 1. Leverage should mirror image strike 
rates. high hammers/low leverage and the reverse.  Move capstans, knuckles 
to change leverage.

<end>

I had to leave at the lunch break (shucks) so I missed all the hands-on 
stuff.  We did look at 5 pianos that had had various work done to them.  
Only the "D" got a full treatment, with whippen springs.  All played very 
smoothly with plenty of control at quiet levels.

I go back in the early morning to re-tune the temperament sampler. (Preston, 
I'm thinking... it's a mild meantone)  I'll take more notes tomorrow, if 
people are interested.  I'm not doing pictures, maybe someone else can do 
that?

Ron Koval





_________________________________________________________________
MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: 
http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx