Depowering a Piano

[Isaac sur Noos]

Letoff or blow ? (or the 2)
You should nowadays leave an acceptable leverage under the hands of
the pianist, so my take is to allow the letoff to be sooner and the
blow a little less (you need the rest cushion to be not too far), and
reduce the dip to allow for jack leaving the roller, as usual, if the
piano is too light use more aftertouch than minimal.

A short dip can be very agreeable to a hard player (assuming letoff
drop is good).

Anyway take care that if you have too much dip for a given stroke
/letoff, the jack is in the lever cushion and is prone to break. It is
a good idea to check where the jack is at the end of the stroke, the
jack may be able to move a little more if you want to be secure.

My idea is that the pianist will not notice, if he bangs he is too
healthy, or death, or the piano tone is not strong enough (too large
strings marks and too hard hammers).
More play at the sustain pedal is a good idea also (don't forget to
lock it).

You will certainly notice also that if the keyboard is hard to control
(regulation not good) you'll have more breaking strings, I take care
often more than necessary of the regulation of the pianos I follow,
and I am happy to have very few breaking (till tomorrow!)

Greetings.



------------------------------------
Isaac OLEG
accordeur - reparateur - concert
oleg-i@noos.fr
19 rue Jules Ferry
94400 VITRY sur SEINE
tel: 033 01 47 18 06 98
fax: 33 01 47 18 06 90
mobile: 033 06 60 42 58 77
------------------------------------


> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : pianotech-bounces@ptg.org
> [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]De la
> part de Barbara Richmond
> Envoyé : mardi 30 décembre 2003 23:21
> À : Barbara Richmond; Pianotech
> Objet : Re: Depowering a Piano
>
>
> Terry,
>
> Here is part of a post that I contributed to back in
> '95--you can find it in
> the archives.  I believe the thread made it into the
> Journal, but I can't
> tell you what year or month.   Also, does the pianist have
> a monitor?
> Sometimes that helps alleviate the problem (and sometimes
> not!).  I can't
> remember how much I backed off the let-off--I used the
> recommendations
> given to me by the folks at Yamaha.
>
> Good luck!
>
>
> Re: Samick Grand Bass String ...
> Barbara Richmond
> Tue, 25 Apr 1995 15:32:37 -0500 (CDT)
>
> <snip>
>
> Seriously, I first saw this piano when it was one year
> old--the string cuts were about 3/4 inch.  I shaped the
> hammers, regulated it to rob it of as much power as
> possible, put lost motion in the damper pedal, softened
> what hammer felt was left and managed to slow but not
> eliminate the breakage.
>
> <snip>
>
> Barbara Richmond
> Illinois Wesleyan University
> Bloomington, Illinois
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Farrell
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2003 3:39 PM
> Subject: Depowering a Piano
>
>
> Yamaha C3, piano bar in nightclub. Serviced every two
> weeks. Always been a
> good piano in very good condition. New piano player for
> last two or three
> months. The guy is a major pounder. Lots of broken bass
> strings (maybe 10 in
> the last two months - never before). The key bushings have
> also gone from
> excellent condition to slapping neighboring keys.
>
> snip
>
> I have seen recommendations for increasing let-off to
> depower a pounder. I
> have never tried that though. Just curious whether anyone
> has any experience
> with the technique I outlined above, and how much dip/blow
> reduction is best
> to adequately depower the piano, but not aggravate the
> player too much. The
> amount I used what just a wild guess on my part.
>
> Terry Farrell
>
>
>
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