This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment Lack of focus may mean that there is a lot of leakage through the agraffes and/or capo bar. This is not unusual on Steinways. I recently had a D redone for me by Del Fandrich that had very similar problems. Modifications of the counterbearing area both in the capo and agraffe sections and new bridge surface/cap really helped to focus the sound by eliminating a lot of the noise. A modified soundboard design with cutoff bar also helped to eliminate the distortion that is sometimes present in the middle section and increase the sustain through the upper end of the piano. The piano has incredible focus, and depth and can be made quite "bright", if you want it, without getting buzzy. If your piano has poor terminations then focus will be a problem and it will be exacerbated by harder or brighter sound. While the real fix may be more involved than you are able to go without some major surgery, you might be able to at least temporarily address the problems by seating at the bridge, and capo-though my experience is that it will not last. A slightly softer hammer will help to reduce the noise but, as you have seen, at the price of perceived power. You can bring the brightness back with a couple small drops of acetone keytop solution (I use 1 keytop to 12-16 oz of acetone, many people use a stronger solution of 8oz but I prefer a weaker one)/ The focus, but the focus problem is a bigger one. If the terminations are good, then lack of focus can mean that the hammers just aren't hard enough or shaped properly or fitted properly to the strings. I would, of course, check those along with string seating first. For design issues that address these problems check Del Fandrich or Ron Nossaman's posts on the subject. In my opinion, that's the state of the art. David Love davidlovepianos@comcast.net -----Original Message----- From: caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of Wimblees@aol.com Sent: Thursday, October 07, 2004 2:45 PM To: caut@ptg.org Subject: [CAUT] more problems with the D Two problems with the D. (Yes the same one) First, I misinterpreted the faculty's comments. It wasn't "brassy" as such, as much as it lacked focus. I perceived this to mean to bright. So I voiced it down. But now he says it has lost it's power. He says the hammers will never come back. Is he right, or is there a way to get the power back on without them becoming too brassy? The other problem, which I also misunderstood, is a noisy action. He said something about it when he complained about uneven voicing with the soft pedal on, but I missed his comments. I compared the action noise with that of the other D, and there does seem to be a little more action noise. I've narrowed it down to when the hammer returns, kind a of a mild knocking sound. I tried voicing up the wippen cushion, but that didn't do anything. Could it be that the back under key felt is too hard? Would that solve the noisy action? (remember, this piano is less than 2 years old. Wim Willem Blees, RPT Piano tuner/technician School of Music University of Alabama ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/21/f4/85/08/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC