David: Might it also be a different partial set energy carrying into the counterbearing segment (front duplex)? I've found that changing the strike point to achieve the sweet spot also reduces the counterbearing "noise". Or they become one and the same--a sweet spot includes that reduction. Paul "If you want to know the truth, stop having opinions" (Chinese fortune cookie) In a message dated 07/27/07 12:21:36 Central Daylight Time, davidlovepianos at comcast.net writes: It seems like there are two factors (at least) involved in strike point issues in the upper area. First is the amount of power for the least amount of extrusion which causes leakage and loss of power especially through the capo bar. A tendency toward weakness or insufficient mass in the soundboard/bridge in this area might also contribute to the jangly and hollow sound that is produced when the hammer strikes too far away from the capo bar--though I'm not sure of the actual mechanics. Second is finding that small area between the nodes which, at the upper end of the piano, is a small target indeed. Striking on the node will kill that particular harmonic affecting the timbral balance. Too large a hammer or too broad a strike point on the hammer itself can also contribute to a limited timbral range in that area as well. David Love davidlovepianos at comcast.net www.davidlovepianos.com -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of A440A at aol.com Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007 10:02 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: Finding the strike line another method Ron writes: << The strike line deviations from a straight line happen in the low treble section - the killer octave. Why? Just hanging the hammers where they work best is good enough for getting the job done, but I'd like to know more of the why here. >> Greetings, I would opine that first we have to define "best". Case in point: A certain hall here has a new Steinway D,(two years old, or so). It has factory hammers with factory hardening in them. It is regarded as the best piano in the school. It sounds very powerful and brilliant to the pianists while they are playing it. There is another D in this school. It is 40 years old and has a set of Renner Blues in it. It was always regarded as the lesser piano by the faculty,(though at a Liszt festival two years ago, 50% of the out of town artists chose it). The pianists feel it is weaker and harder to play than the new one,(gram weights are within 2 grams of each other). I have voiced this older piano for the maximum range of tone between ppp and FFF. Last year, both pianos were on stage for concerto practise. Out in the hall, the Renner equipped piano had a much fuller, more powerful sound,while the new piano sounded thin and stringy. While the human ear is more sensitive to the upper frequencies, (basically the range of normal human speech,no surprise), acoustic power is more efficiently carried by lower frequencies. This is why we can hear the bass drum in a marching band from a mile or more away, but as they pass by us on the street, it is the piccolo that drills its way through our head! What I am wondering is if shortening the strike point is sacrificing some of the lower spectrum in the killer octave notes and lending emphasis to the higher partials, thus making it seem as though the piano has more power to the pianist, (or technician). Has anybody compared a "bent-line" piano with a straight-line piano in the venue, from farther out from the stage? Regards, Ed Foote RPT http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html <BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour</HTML> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20070727/38793f96/attachment.html
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