Basically, whether or not I like the non-speaking segments muted or not depends on the song, sometimes the piano, and often the playing style, among other factors. Basically, for soft playing, I want a soft tone most of the time, which would probably mean muting the non-speaking segments. For more firm / FF playing, I would want a more bright, full, rich tone, so I would leave the segments unmuted. For pianos with a nice long scale, like old, well-built full-size "cabinet grand" (quotes intentional) uprights of at least 54" in height, or grands at least 7' to 7'6" long, I would probably want to have the segments unmuted to contribute to the sound. I wouldn't be sure about how to do the muting / unmuting of small pianos, for example < 45" height or < 5'8" length (especially <39" or <5') but from my experience, I would be willing to sacrifice power in the bass to get some extra sustain time. I know of an Old Clank (YC) 150cm grand that can play fairly loud in the low bass, but it's dead and the sustain is quite short. I've heard spinets that although they weren't nearly as loud, they sounded much better. ----- Original message ----- From: "Richard Brekne" <Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no> To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org> Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 18:38:07 +0200 Subject: Re: Stringing Braid and the perception of doing it right Phol Bindy wrote: > >This last re-string has further convinced me of my conviction of the > >following: > > > >Stringing Braid is not necessarily necessary. Why not ? > > > >There was alot of stringing braid that came off of this > >Baldwin(#17907..circa 1911)..the bass bridge wire was braided, and the low > >tenor to about A4 was braided. That's over 1/2 of the instrument being > >braided. > > > >Why? The manufacturer decided it was best for these back lengths to be quieted by the braid ??? > >Is there some musical significance to stringing braid? If there is, I'm not > >hearing it. Take a Grotrian and mute off all the backlengths. I'm sure you will notice a difference. Or take your next Steinway or Yamaha, Yang Chung or similiarily equipped grand and put your finger on the front length between the capo and the bearing whilst banging away at the same note. Then listen with the finger off. It is sounds like this some dont want to hear, and others find musical. Take your pick.> > >I am of the belief that a wire on a piano should be allowed to speak freely > >without any restrictions. The piano is the only stringed instrument that I > >can think of that uses a dampening agent(?) on its waste area for the > >purpose of........... To each their own on this one, as in so many other such things. I am not particularilly a fan of all those unmuted backlengths. > > > >That's my question: What is the purpose of stringing braid? If its purpose > >is to dampen overtones, aren't the overtones necessary in the production of > >sound? If the purpose of stringing braid is to 'pretty up' the piano, then > >I'm guilty of not wanting to pretty it up in that fashion, because I'm not > >hearing anything that requires it to be 'prettier'. All these back lengths have their own frequencies. Some of them dont really sound all that great when beating against some of the higher fundementals and 2nd partials of treble notes. Then too they together create this sort of swishing background noise that easily can contribute to much to the overall sound.... at least to much for some of us. Course tastes vary on this, and so you see all sorts of configurations... tuned and untuned, short and long, muted, braided, free, and muffed. Thats what makes the world go round.... diversity !! RIcB > > > > >I'm looking forward to the responses. > > > >-Phil Bondi (Fl.) > >phil@philbondi.com > > > > > > > > > >_______________________________________________ > >pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives > > _______________________________________________ > pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html _______________________________________________ pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives -- Stephen Airy stephenairy@fastmail.fm
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