Hello
Have you repined the hammer flanges.
Loose flanges create small windows of opportunity for
spring tension to friction relationships to work
properly. A small increase in tension , and they jump.
A small decrease and they won t lift. With proper
friction the operating window is wider.
Loose flanges harm tone also......a great deal of
upper end unstable harmonic content is created
by loose flanges.
If several hammer shapings are creating light weight
related tone problems, there is another reason to
change hammers and shanks. You can experiment with
tonal changes related to increased weight by cutting
some pastic tube of the correct diameter to fit around
a shank. Slit it open, and wrap it around the shank.
Hear how the sound becomes darker.
Perhaps you have worn hammers that are light,
worn flanges with no friction, as well as over juiced
and over voiced hammers.
Try a new sample hammer and shank on a poor note.
If the difference is self evident it is a great way
to sell the job.
Rule #1
Don t make the same mistake 88 times you can make
once.
Cheers
David Renaud
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
favourite 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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