G-2 soundboard modification

[David Ilvedson]

Hey Dale,

Did you do first determine the Ronsens were unusually soft because of the feel of the hammer (squeezing) or the sound in the piano when you first played the keys?   

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, California






Original message
From: Erwinspiano at aol.com
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Received: 3/20/2006 3:25:07 PM
Subject: Re: G-2 soundboard modification


   Hello to all
   A few weeks ago I reported on a project of thinning a very thick 30 year old Yamaha G-2 Soundboard.  (See post below )    FYI a G-2 is 5 ft. 7 inches.
  This piano was re strung using Arledge bass wire & mapes Gold plain wire.  The crown was adequate as was bearing. 
  We used the Ronsen Wurzen felt.  The tonal outcome was beyond my expectations The overall balance clarity, power & tonal response was drastically & wonderfully different than the original boring & vanilla type sound this piano has always had.  It is a tremendous advantage to have had opportunity to despise this particular piano for 30 years & because I know it so well the subjective expereince is greatly dimninished and objective observations become far more focused.  Really cool. 
   In my shop the acoustic atmosphere is very dry & the tone is very transparent so it's a challenge to make every thing satisfy my ear in thsi environment.  If it does then the tonal output only improves in the actual environment. Well.. usually.
  This set of Wurzen felt was uncharacteristically soft & the piano required a failry firm hammer density.  SO it wasn't the usual hang em on & it's time to rock & roll.   However I did have the oppurtunity to use Steinway style type voicing techniques in a Japanese pianos & I tell you the results were Humbly beautiful & satisfying. It frankly took a lot of juicing but in the end I could stick needles in the hammers though it was not necessary. It required several applications to get where I wanted to get tonally & though many of you despise this technique the tone from this method is hard to duplicate. The bass has bite & power , & the treble has sustain power & dynamic round tone that the too thick original board could not hope to produce. The sound floats out of the piano with a shimmer & hangs in mid air.  How's that for subjective? grin
   This piano doesn't sound like any Yamaha I know & the customer who has owned it's entire life is a fine player.  I'd say she was overjoyed & thrilled to say the least.  I truly wish some of you were here to experience this fun moment in time today.
 Life is good
  Blessings
  Dale
 
  Fellow Belly heads
  As time goes by I'm starting to have more opportunity to attempt improvements on Models of Pianos that IMO need it.  My Father Harold, to the right of me sold Yamaha pianos for 20 years.  To me the  5 -7" G-2 for some reason was quite a boring sounding piano.  We are currently giving a fairly inexpensive face list to a 30 year old G-2.  It always had a stingy sound & not a very interesting tonal envelope.  We took it in for a hammer transplant & strings & in the process discovered some of the reason it is stingy.  The 5 ft & 7 " piano has a .400 thick Sika spruce panel.  Not all over but mostly .  The thinnest spot I coud find was >380.  The panel has very tight grain as in 25 to 30 grains an inch.  It has adequate crown & bearing with compression visible in the panel & moderate compression ridges in evidence....  
  SO I decided to diaphramize this tubby little beast to seek improvement. I drilled small access holes (1.5mm) at the perimeter thru the board in the curved section under the plate. The nose bolt holes also serve this purpose.  This allows for the wire end of a caliper to protrude thru the holes & the taking of  initial  measurements & also to track progess.  
  I employ a low angle Lie- Nielsen smoothing  plane for the bulk of removal of wood.  I'm aiming to get about .340 ish in the middle & about .300 or less around the tail & behind the bass bridge. The flat side & the belly rail also were thinned.  My goal to create a thinner more flexible dome shaped panel.
    A small bull nose type planes allowed for access in tight places such as the bass bridge to rim. .  Interestingly each plank of the board was laid out so that it had opposing grain or in other words I had to reverse the direction of planing to reduce tear out on each panel.  The tight hard grain wanted to really tear out every chance it got.  The small plane with approximately 5/8" blade also reduced tear out & surprisingly I did a lot of grain tear clean up with the small bull nose without further damage. 
  After thorough & appropriate sanding  we sealed with shellac & then proceeded with Lacquer sealer & gloss top coats folowed a good hand rub out followed by machine buffing with swirl removers which  made it look quite shiny but & not as glossy  looking as polyester. (Nothing wrong with shiny)The original poly coat was 10 mils thick. The 8 coats of lacquer I bet is 5. Nothing wrong with 10 mils either IMO
   The boom or tap test really went from thuddy & tight near the edges to vibrant & boom in the middle sounded much more free.  Trix is half thru stringing it and I will report on the final out come in a week or so.  I consulted with Ron O. about floating the bass but because of fiscal restraints passed on the idea. We are using Jolly loops on the first 10 bass mono chord notes to set some of backscale free.
  All in all we probably spent about 3 ish hours planing & sanding less than 3 ish hours for the rest. No more than 8 hours
  It will be an interesting project & beleive it will prove to make the poor girls intrument far more interesting & she deserves it.
   Having fun here
   Dale Erwin

    
 Dale Erwin
 
Dale Erwin--Piano Restorations
4721 Parker Rd.
Modesto, Calif 95357
Shop 209-577-8397
cell 209-985-0990
http://www.erwinspiano.com/
Specializing in the restoration, service & Sales of
Steinway, Mason & Hamlin, & other fine pianos
 
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