[CAUT] Chopin 1 piano concert

[Richard Brekne]

Hi David

Hammers are rather used up on this instrument. 11 years of use. Their 
shape is a bit rounded instead of diamond as they have been needled and 
filed many times. On at least one occasion (4 years ago now) the whole 
middle section was way over voiced to the point of being downright 
mushy. Looked to me at the time like there had been some attempt at 
hardening up with lacquer and that that hadn't really worked out right 
so it was needled even more.  The treble at that time was ice bright and 
the middle just poofy. Filing, a bit of acetone, and ironing brought 
them back up acceptably at the time.

Typically the instrument gets one real thorough service each year just 
before the big festival. What has happened in the interim each year has 
been a hodge podge of things through the years as there has been no real 
service policy by the owners... which is a complicated issue in itself. 
The instrument gets used for all kinds of stuff between festivals and so 
on top of some degree of less then optimal voicing routines it gets a 
fair share of heavy use with no servicing in between.

There is perhaps 2/3's of the original hammer felt left... least in the 
area from say F4 to C6. It really does need a new set of hammers.

I'll write a separate post for the tuning bit.  As far as the reverb is 
concerned.  That was the recording engineers doing.  For that matter the 
piano itself was a bit more dominant in the recording then in concert... 
which was also the engineers doing. As such has little to do with the 
instruments voice per sé.  Tho I agree that it ended up just a bit on 
the  hard side... mostly evident in F6-C7 range.... IMO. If that had 
been just a tad tamer I think I would have been pleased pink.  Still, 
given the time allotment for getting the thing ready for this concert... 
I should be very happy indeed. I was only given the green light for a 
tuning until the pianist complained about the voicing.  I had to get up 
at 430 am the day of the concert to bring it into the ball park, and 
then after meeting with the pianist after the general run though had 
another 2 hours.  He ended up very pleased btw.

Interesting in all this is that I have had all kinds of variant 
responses to querries about the voicing.  Some say its to bright, others 
its not powerful enough, others again go so far as to say it was too 
rounded off.  I suppose that places me somewhere in the middle of all 
that... but I still think myself at least that upper region could have 
stood a bit more cushion-ish sound.

Cheers, and thanks for the comments.

RicB



    Hi Ric,

    I would be interested in the condition of the hammers, i.e. how many
    times have they been filed and their shape.   Also talk about your
    voicing procedure.   I also found it a bit bright and "wet"...reverb?
    But the tuning was very good...

    I know you have written about your TuneLab procedures, but I'm
    interested in getting it for my iphone.   I'm use to the point and
    shoot of the SAT III...of course, listening aurally to octave types,
    fourths and fifths and making adjustments.   How would you recommend
    proceeding with TuneLab?  

    David Ilvedson, RPT
    Pacifica, CA  94044