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*From:* pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] *On
Behalf Of *erwinspiano at aol.com
*Sent:* Tuesday, November 18, 2008 10:14 AM
*To:* pianotech at ptg.org
*Subject:* Re: [pianotech] hours and costs to restring a Yamaha G2
I Always disliked this model
Thin the soundboard around the edges while you have the plate out. These
boards are uniformly too thick..390 ish.
The process will transform the piano into something far more musical. Use
a low angle block plane & get rid of all the plastic finish too. Re lacquer
& viola ! Something better than it's formerly stingy self.
Write privately for details.
Dale
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*Dale-*
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*Is this the previous post you were referring to?*
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*Dean
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*From:* pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] *On
Behalf Of *Erwinspiano at aol.com
*Sent:* Tuesday, March 21, 2006 12:25 AM
*To:* pianotech at ptg.org
*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
--
Dean
Dean May cell 812.239.3359
PianoRebuilders.com 812.235.5272
Terre Haute IN 47802
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