Quiet Russian Piano

[gordon stelter]

Terry. In this situation you could probabaly lacquer
the fool out of the hammers, and that would be
satisfactory. Then, when the piano was "miked", they
could turn the bass way up and the treble way down, on
the amp itself, if it sounded too harsh to them. 
But ( and this is in no way intended as a slur ) it
might not. It might be exactly the tone they would
prefer for this type of celebration.
     Thump

--- Phil Frankenberg <rinkyd@pacbell.net> wrote:
> Did you pluck strings with you fingernail ? (or some
> kind of plucker)
> Phil Frankenberg
> CSU Chico, Ca.
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Farrell 
>   To: pianotech@ptg.org 
>   Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2004 3:27 AM
>   Subject: Quiet Russian Piano
> 
> 
>   I looked at a piano for one of my customers that
> someone had donated to his church. I think it is
> Russian - a Liski, or something like that. Looks to
> be less than 20 years old and is a studio.
> Everything works OK, except it has no power - you
> can bang on the keys, but only moderated volume
> results. I checked the action - blow distance and
> the like - made sure the bridges were attached, etc.
> My strong suspicion is that the string scale and
> soundboard designs are just so far out of whack that
> the lack of power is simply part of this piano and
> always will be. Any thoughts? Might I be missing
> something?
> 
>   Perhaps, to put things into proper perspective, I
> should mention this piano is in an African-American
> Missionary Baptist Church. I guarantee you they are
> looking for some VOLUME! I did offer the suggestion
> of miking (how do you spell mice-ing?) the piano if
> they were going to be using that piano. 
> 
>   Fun Kinda Related Story:
>   In a similar church I service a Kawai 6-foot or so
> grand. One time they called me because the sustain
> pedal wasn't working. Sounded pretty typical to me -
> sure, they likely beat the pedal right off the lyre
> or something. When I got there I realized that the
> pedal simply had no travel - in fact, none of the
> pedals had any travel - they were right on the stage
> floor. Hmmmmmmm, what could it be. Then I noticed
> that this Kawai was the model where the two front
> legs were shorter than the back leg - they had
> pounded that piano so hard that the two front legs
> went through the stage floor and the only reason the
> keybed was not on the floor was that the lyre had
> yet to be pounded through the floor - the front of
> the piano was only being supported by the lyre.
> YIKES!
> 
>   Terry Farrell


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