voicing damage was Steinway D questions

[jason kanter]

I wonder whether the tech who did all the needling also damaged the pinning
(with all that vigorous handling of the hammer, some of the energy must
affect the pins in their bushings)

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]On
Behalf Of Marcel Carey
Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 12:23 PM
To: Pianotech
Subject: RE: Steinway D questions


Kurt,

>From your description of symptom, I would have a look at the shank
center pinning for that note. I'd bet you that it's on the very loose
side (I would guess about 10-12 swings). This is the kind of voicing
problem that loose pinning does.

Marcel Carey, RPT
Sherbrooke, QC

> -----Original Message-----
> From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]On
> Behalf Of Kurt
> Sent: November 12, 2004 11:34 AM
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Steinway D questions
>
>
> Hi List,
>
> Just (nearly) finished regulating a Steinway D 9', used
> ONLY for concert
> work in a hall.
>
> Two problems/questions.
>
> 1. What is the most efficient way to adjust these
> #$%^%$#^@^ repetition
> springs? Is there a special tool, (other than the custom
> made piano wire
> hook tool I've made), or technique, to accurately and
> simply adjust these
> ^%#^$#^ things? The springs are uniformly far too strong
> and need to be
> weakened a LOT. Rep springs are definitely my least
> favorite part of
> regulating. I can do this with my custom tool, but hope
> there is a faster
> more precise approach.
>
> 2. Voicing specific "deadish" notes. These are Steinway
> hammers. They
> appear to have been soaked with hardeners, and have very
> little soft felt
> left on top after a minimal shaping I had to do. In
> addition, a previous
> tech overhardened them, then yet ANOTHER tech needled them down to
> compensate for the first tech. There are about six notes
> from the upper
> tenor to low high treble that have nearly no sustain but a
> harsh attack,
> insufficient loudness, and seem to have an extremely
> annoying tonal "hole"
> between the fundamental and the highest partials. In other
> words, one hears
> the fundamental which dies quickly, then very high metallic
> harmonics, but
> no to little octave/octave fifth harmonics. Hammers are
> fine aligned to
> strings, let-off is slightly less than 1/16th, notes are
> regulated exactly
> like their neighbors, strings are seated on bridges,
> strings have been
> leveled, and hammers are correctly fitted to strings.
> Picking the strings
> seem to indicate poor response in the strings rather than a
> hammer problem,
> but the repeated work by other techs before me make me
> wonder. Slightly
> moving hammer alignment does nothing. Moving tonally good
> adjacent hammers
> to problem note does very little as well. Could these be
> "dead spots"
> relative to soundboard/bridge responsiveness? Could the
> hammers themselves
> have been "killed"? Suggestions how to get mid harmonics
> back in and longer
> sustain and louder volume greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> PS to Joe Garrett: I AM using the company you suggested for
> the square
> grand hammers.
> ;-)
>
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>

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