No soft spot, I just think you're wrong attributing a "sizzle" to unfelted backscale. David Love davidlovepianos@comcast.net -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of Ric Brekne Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2005 3:01 PM To: pianotech Subject: Grotrian Steinwegs - to list or not to list? David Seems I must have hit a soft spot. Sorry ... grin. As for the sizzle sound. It most certainly does exist and on virtually every Grotrian I've run into... (the exception being a Beckstein-ised Grotrian I came across a while back. A series of posts were written about that a few years back here.) Now what you decide to read into my description and what am actually describing may very well get confused in the mix, but that said... I'd have to agree with the unacceptable part... with the qualification that that judgement is a matter of personal taste. I know many who love the Grotrian sound... I'm just not one of them. Play a big chord on your average every day Grotrain... and listen to the whoosh of sound that echos afterwards as all those unmuted lengths all over the piano get into the act. Sounds like a sizzle to me. What it sounds like to you is of course your affair. I find, personally mind you, that back lengths for the bass and about up to the capo bar should be muted. I dont like so much contribution from the front scales as is evident in the Grotrian either. Pianos that have nicely functioning front duplex ala S&S are quite satisfactory to me. I also like the Bechstein solution... so I suppose I lean a bit to the quiet side when it comes to all these non-singing lengths. When I restring, I cloth as mentioned above, and I usually make sure the capo profile has a nice sharp V (not U) to it as that (in my experience) yeilds the cleanest response from the front duplex. To each their own as they say. Cheers RicB David Love writes: A predominant "sizzle" sound like cymbals with rivets??? I don't think so. Such a sound would be wholly unacceptable and I've never heard anything like that from a Grotrian or any other similarly designed piano. Length of the backscale or lack of cloth in the backscale or in other non speaking areas will not yield any sizzle sound or sound of riveted cymbals. If you hear that I would look for something else, like a loose piece of wire resting on a string. If you get a bit too much overring of sympathetics for your liking, then weave some cloth into the offending areas. Test for that by striking some staccato chords in various areas of the piano and listening for a bit of after echo. How much is desirable is a matter of taste. Some people like a very dry and complete shutoff, some don't. After restringing I often don't put any cloth in until it's evident that the piano needs it, unless I want the look of it. The areas where you are most likely to need it will be the bass and the low end of the tenor on some pianos. Rarely do I find the cloth necessary in the aliquot area of a Steinway. Most people insert the cloth more out of habit than need. _______________________________________________ pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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