[pianotech] Even balance weight or even downweight

[David Andersen]

Great post. Thanks so much, Jim. You're the kind of piano technician  
artists love and long for---bad-ass yet always learning, always an  
apprentice. Good job.
David A.




On Sep 28, 2009, at 2:49 PM, Jim Busby wrote:

> Cy,
>
> I’ve asked Vince Mrykalo to respond because he has definite opinions  
> on it. I hope he will. But here is what Vince taught me, and what I  
> do;
>
> I strive for both! A balance weight of 35-38 and DW from 50-52. (and  
> UW for reasonable F) Some may argue the numbers with me, and I must  
> say that I “try” to get these kind of numbers, but sometimes I’ll go  
> with a  higher BW (39-41) if the owner seems to like that feel. When  
> they play several and keep coming back to something they like, I try  
> to take note of that. Here at BYU we have many pianos to play and  
> try/experiment with. Whatever I do I want it to be consistent  
> throughout the piano. This seems to be more important than some of  
> the numbers we become so anal about.
>
> Our Hamburg D is very consistently 38 BW, 52 DW. One pianist that  
> all our piano faculty nearly bowed to in honor every time they  
> mentioned his name said “I have played in every major concert hall  
> in the world and this is the most even touch and voicing of any  
> piano I’ve ever played.” (Vince did the work, not me.) So this is  
> why I chose those numbers as my default.
>
> Another great pianist once told me that he wished technicians would  
> stop trying to make all pianos play and sound the same!! (I had  
> asked what advice he could give me…) He said “Let the piano be what  
> it wants to be; this one brighter, that one darker, one heavier and  
> another lighter touch.” This really opened things up for me. We  
> walked around and he played several pianos (all Steinways at Snow  
> College) and he said “This one would be great for (such and such)  
> piece. And that one for (such and such) concerto. And this one has a  
> very heavy touch compared to that one, but I like them both!” In  
> fact I’ve had three giants of the piano at different times tell me  
> the same basic things. All were amazing and had won about every  
> major competition you’ve ever heard of. When I do have their ear  
> (and it’s easy when they’re in rural Utah with time to waste) I  
> always ask the question “what advice can you give me as a technician”.
>
> I know Fred Sturm would agree that he likes a variety in his pianos,  
> but your question as to “which” is more desirable BW or DW, I’m not  
> sure can be answered easily.
>
> My 4 bits.
>
> Regards,
> Jim Busby
>
> From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org]  
> On Behalf Of Cy Shuster
> Sent: Monday, September 28, 2009 8:54 AM
> To: pianotech at ptg.org
> Subject: Re: [pianotech] Even balance weight or even downweight
>
> I didn't see any replies on this.  It's a great question -- any  
> takers?
>
> --Cy--
>
> Cy Shuster, RPT
> Albuquerque, NM
> www.shusterpiano.com
>
> On Sep 24, 2009, at 5:58 PM, David Love wrote:
>
>
> While working with one of my colleagues to help him through the ins  
> and outs of the Stanwood basics we got into a brief discussion about  
> what is desirable from the pianist’s point of view: uniform balance  
> weight or uniform downweight.  It’s easy enough to set up the  
> balance weight system so that it gradually increases in proportion  
> to the ever decreasing friction in order to achieve a uniform  
> downweight.   The charts below illustrates that.  I’m curious for  
> those of you who use the balance weight system whether you ever  
> target a uniform downweight instead and what the overall reaction  
> is.    I typically do not, though I’m considering trying it on the  
> next action.  I do sometimes get comments that the upper end of the  
> piano is too light and it seems like a reasonable approach.  One  
> side benefit of doing it this way is a higher up weight in the upper  
> end of the piano which, presumably, would reap benefits in terms of  
> repetition.
>
> The key didn’t copy for some reason so it is as follows:  (if the  
> charts don’t appear open the email in html rather than plain text).
>
> Blue circles are down weight
> Red diamonds are balance weight
> Blue Triangles are up weight
> Red circles are friction
> Note 1 is on the far left, 88 on the far right
>
>
> <image001.png>
>
> <image002.png>
>
>
> David Love
> www.davidlovepianos.com
>
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090928/a7227ee4/attachment-0001.htm>