[CAUT] Agraffes and dampers

[Andrew Anderson]

You might suggest to the university that they get a piano from Sauter 
that comes "prepared" from the factory.

Check out http://www.sauter-pianos.de/english/grand_pianos_classical/omega.html
and click on the picture link on the lower right.

Andrew Anderson

At 09:09 AM 5/15/2007, you wrote:

>Welcome Joe,
>
>The "prepared piano" as they call it here at UNL is a pain in the 
>@$$^$%#.!!  Students not only put stickers on the damper heads, but 
>also Sharpie pens and chalk marks, even on the strings, pluck with 
>oiley fingers, quarters, paperclips, staples, screwdrivers, and try 
>anything to get "the right sound"! This gives you lots of practice 
>removing objects from the soundboard and action and keybed!  Unless 
>you're able to teach the instructors on removal of foreign "stuffs" 
>and insist they pass the info to the students, you're out of luck on 
>them not damaging things. Strings and agraffes also get quite a bit 
>of damage as well. Think of it as additional job security.....
>
>Personally, I'd like to put a nice tight hitchpin loop around the 
>neck of whoever invented this "music"!
>
>2.  Your second question sounds similar to capo problems in 
>grands.  Perhaps, ( and the more experienced CAUT members will add 
>to this) the agraffes have a termination point problem, either very 
>sharp or quite flat.  It could also be weak string problem or very 
>high tension design problem in Petrofs.  I'm not familiar enough on 
>the tension scale of these pianos, but you might want to look that up as well.
>
>Just a couple of thoughts....
>
>Best,
>
>Paul
>
>
>
>
>Joe Wiencek <jwpiano at earthlink.net>
>Sent by: caut-bounces at ptg.org
>
>05/15/2007 07:55 AM
>Please respond to
>College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>
>
>To
>caut at ptg.org
>cc
>Subject
>[CAUT] Agraffes and dampers
>
>
>
>
>Hello list,
>This is my first posting to the CAUT list.  I have two questions
>1:  How do you keep dampers free from damage when modern music requires
>playing the strings with fingers and the performers paste the damper
>heads with colored stickers, then remove them and tearing felt, etc.
>This is at NYU, but my own experience in music school tells me it must
>be all over.
>
>2:  A  Petrof P131 upright with agraffes to the top has broken every
>string from E6-E7.  The break is at the edge of the bearing before
>entering the agraffe on the speaking side. Any ideas?
>Thanks,
>
>Joe Wiencek
>jwpiano at earthlink.net
>
>tel: 551 358 4006
>
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