[pianotech] Tuning the duplex sections

[John Delacour]

At 07:41 -0500 15/03/2011, Andrew Anderson wrote:

>In my experience when a piano is well tuned, power and sustain 
>improves.  (There are some pianos where a well-tuned unison rapidly 
>fades, presuming that isn't what we are talking about.)  In your 
>example you said the piano was near pitch but not in-tune if I 
>understood correctly.  Maybe this is where the difference lies...?

I'm certainly going to defer judgement of any kind until the piano is 
first tuned and then restrung and restored.  One thing is sure and 
that is that the bass strings are not helping because most of them 
have gone tubby after a mere 150 years!  All the same it has the 
makings of a very fine piano.

What Ron says about bright toning diminishing the 'bloom' also rings 
true with me.  Bright toning has a bad effect on the development and 
decay of the sound of a single note, so it follows that the whole 
thing would be badly affected.

At 07:20 -0700 15/03/2011, David Love wrote:
>Yamaha boards are relatively much heavier than Steinway boards.  Their
>ability to be driven requires a much higher tension scale and heavier
>hammer.  The higher tension scale with greater stiffness (or more mass or
>both) may not react as easily to the feedback loop of energy being
>transmitted back to the strings.

I'd say the scale tension and the soundboard mass are two separate 
issues.  The piano that exhibited this 'bloom' effect in the most 
striking degree to me 20 years ago or so had a high tension scale and 
a very efficient and unYamaha-like soundboard.  This was a 6'3" 
Brinsmead and I now have another of the same model that needs a lot 
of work and which at the moment is very dull and uninteresting. It's 
probably that a combination of several factors contributes to this 
effect, and an efficient soundboard is crucial, but most pianos, like 
Yamaha and tons of others are going to be soulless whatever you do 
with them.

JD

PS.  Did I mention that I don't like Yahamas?