Flexy S&S D Keys

[Dean May]

Ric

Your comments remind me of one of my clients with a son who was a pretty
decent budding pianist. They had a Wurlitzer spinet for his practice piano
doe many years and they finally decided it was time to get him a better
instrument. I was able to hook them up with a nice used Steinway M, a pretty
decent home piano and a definite upgrade from the Wurly. They called me out
after it was in the home for a few weeks. Seems the boy didn't like the way
it felt or sounded. I told them to give it awhile, let him get used to the
difference, and he might even end up preferring the Steinway over the Wurly.


Methinks a lot of "personal preference" boils down to what kind of piano
someone is used to playing. This son of my client was used to playing the
Wurly, and that became normative for him, it was how pianos were supposed to
sound and respond. That's okay, people are certainly entitled to love the
sound and touch of their Wurlies. And pianists who are used to playing
flexing keys might think that is a wonderful feel. But they might, actually,
become better pianists if they learned to play pianos without flexing keys. 

I think this all makes it even more incumbent on us to encourage people to
upgrade their child's practice instrument. Face it: 6-10 years of practicing
on a piece of crap dulls the senses and is definitely not conducive to
developing good technique or a good appreciation for tone. 

I had a pow wow with my 11 year old daughter's piano teacher. The teacher
was remarking how well Lydia "got it", she could hear it more than the
teacher's other students. I tune for a lot of her other students. Most of
them practice on crap. Lydia has a nice little Baldwin grand with a
wonderful tone and very nice action. I dunno. Maybe it's her practice piano.
Of course, maybe it's genetic! :-)



Dean

Dean May             cell 812.239.3359 

PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272 

Terre Haute IN  47802

 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Richard Brekne
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 5:30 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Flexy S&S D Keys

Hi Del and Terry,

Terry, how did you ascertain that there was <<too much>> flex in the 
keys ?  Del,  what is wrong with calling a spade a spade ?  Honestly 
folks... any <<improvement>> in an actions performance is wholly a 
result of the users reaction to the change.  There is no inherent 
improvment.... only a change in configuration.

Thing is that for every person that would equate this change with an 
<<improvement>> there are probably at least that many if not 10 times as 
many who would not. You make the action stiffer when you make it 
stiffer... goes without saying...  if thats a good thing for the pianist 
in question fine... if its not...what ...are we going to get all down on 
the guy and snub our noses at him ?

Why not just call a change a change and leave it at that .... along with 
making it clear to the customer what the change will do... pros and 
cons. Because there is always pros and cons.

I'd like to know what the criteria for judging these particular keys to 
have to much flex are ?  Terry ?

Cheers
RicB


    Have him or her go back to the August and December 1996 Journals and
    read the
    two articles I wrote about energy losses in piano actions. In one of
    those
    articles I described how to improve (I realize the idea of
    "improving" anything
    to do with the piano is subjective so perhaps I should just say
    "change") these
    keys.
     
    Basically I removed the so-called Accelerated Action "rockers" and
    replaced them
    with normal thin felt punchings. I then used the space gained to
    accommodate
    maple plates of equal thickness (4 mm comes to mind but you should
    check) glued
    to the bottom of the keys. Did wonders to "change" the performance
    of the action
    and the piano.
     
    Del