CRESCENDO GRAND PUNCHINGS

[Sarah Fox]

Er...  I'm with Avery on this one!  As long as the commercial message is
piano-related and isn't for deodorant, toilet paper, or V.i.a.g.r.a, then
it's useful here on the list.  I don't think I've ever seen anyone chastized
on this list for promoting some product or method, even though I can think
of many who have done it.  Why are y'all spatting about this now?!

Personally I'm glad Andre has aggressively pushed Wurzen felt products.
Otherwise I wouldn't have known about them and wouldn't have experienced
them for myself.  I am equally thankful that David has aggressively pushed
his metrology, as I have learned a lot from it and have some basis from
which to evaluate action geometry.  I'm even thankful to those who have
pushed some products of which I have been skeptical, because I recognized
that they were trying to improve the craft, even considering they had a
profit motive.

For most people on this list, all this discussion is about business -- the
business of making pianos perform their best.  There's profit in it for 99%
of the folks on this list who service pianos.  Then there's a smaller cut of
folks on this list who sell products to the technicians who service the
pianos.  Aren't they allowed to have a profit motive too?  We must all make
money somehow, yes????

Thank you, all of you, who have weighed in on this discussion.  I wouldn't
have dreamed a front rail punching could affect tone, beyone differences of
the noise from the key bottoming.  I am fascinated by Stephen's preliminary
findings/assertions, and they make sense to me.  I love watching the theory
and early empirical data starting to sync with the phenomenology, and I
eagerly await further findings from that lab!  I'm learning a lot.

Meanwhile, please consider a thought or two of my own:

If there is indeed a wobble effect that differences in punchings have made
apparent (and that Andre's sensitive ear has discovered), then the
consistency of the punching could well be the lesser issue.  Perhaps the
larger issue is one of how to eliminate wobble/play from the system.  For
instance, should we be focusing on an action redesign, with some mechanism
that isolates wobble from the keystick and does not transfer it to the
wippen?  Should we also be focusing on "bearings" that are more rigid?
Perhaps synthetic, molded parts that are more precise?

Anyway, until these questions are resolved, I suspect I will greatly enjoy
my Wurzen punchings -- just as much as I'm enjoying my Wurzen hammers.  :-)

Peace,
Sarah




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ric Brekne" <ricbrek@broadpark.no>
To: "pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 08, 2005 7:14 PM
Subject: CRESCENDO GRAND PUNCHINGS


>
> David
>
> I see no real difference between Andres verbal enthusiasms for his
> punchings and yours for your product. I see absolutly no grounds for you
> to offer him a <<correction>> in this regard considering the many
> enthusastic advertisements of various sorts you have given for your
> product through various PTG endeavours including this list. In fact,
> given the latitude exhibitors like youself have been given in being
> allowed to be defined as instructors at conventions... (a latitude
> people  like myself have supported vigorously)  I find your comments
> towards Andre curious at best.
>
>  >/Looking at felt through a microscope can only reveal the
> />/degree of fineness of wool fibers used in a felt, and nothing more.
> /
> /Yes! And the degree of fineness is very important to know. In my
> experience, especially
> with hammers, finer fiber means a finer quality of felt and tone. I'm
> interested to know if
> Wurzen felt uses finer (smaller diameter) fiber than everyone else.
> There is always
> something to learn by looking more closely at things... especially with
> a scanning electron
> microscope./
> ---------
>
> I fail to see how your comment here is in any way at odds with the
> statement I made which proceeds it.
>
>  >/Claims about the technical correctness of the use of cloth vs felt are
> />/simply ungrounded at this point one way or the other. As are claims as
> />/to why.
> /
> /Richard... There is ample grounding for the correctness of using cloth
> for front rail
> punchings./
> -------
>
> No... it is not. There is no comparison data out there to confirm such
> speculative (and I might add, hasty) conclusions. Course I'd be willing
> to see it if there was.  I'd  love to see where these are covered in the
> anals of piano making history.  More likely, cloth has been used simply
> because it has been always deemed "adequate" to the job and cost
effective.
> ------------
> /Its use has evolved through the total experience of the whole piano
> industry
> over all of time and we all use it because the test of time shows that
> it is the best construction
> of felt for that application in the piano. So I would think twice if
> you're going to throw out all
> that history, experience, and collective knowledge./
> -------------
>
> To be sure, and by the same logic we can say that your whole methodology
> is then useless because it questions that same history, experience, and
> collective knowledge.  Whats good for the proverbial Goose.
>
> ----------------
>
> /To be honest Richard, I feel that it is inappropriate for you to bring
> up personal issues and
> judgements such as you have in regards to me and my Dutch Colleague
> Frans Pietjouw. /
> --------------
>
> I really and truly believe it entirely appropriate and called for,
> given the circumstance. And I still do.
> --------------
>
> /This list is about sharing knowledge, not personal issues.
>
> /I agree, which is why I reacted. And having said and now underlined my
> concern, I'll leave it to rest.
>
> //With Respect
>
> Richard Brekne
> _______________________________________________
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>
>