[CAUT] damper return noise/una corda

[Paul T Williams]

Hi Fred,

I think you're right about Steinway moving in this direction. Kent Webb 
had us doing this very thing in the "Touch and Tone" seminar last 
November. 

I really like Yamaha damper felt.  You might give it a shot before 
changing the whole alignment thingy.

What type of piano is this you're working on?

Paul




From:
Fred Sturm <fssturm at unm.edu>
To:
College & University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>
Date:
05/06/2010 12:09 PM
Subject:
[CAUT] damper return noise/una corda



                 There has been discussion in the past on this list of the 
problem of 
damper return noise when playing with una corda. This problem has 
really been bugging me more and more. The issue is that the dampers 
work fine with next to no return noise except when the una corda pedal 
is used. But when the u c is used, there is considerable, often very 
audible return noise, and it happens when someone is trying to play 
very softly so is doubly annoying, essentially in areas where there 
are trichord damper felts. I have tried lots of things, the most 
promising of which is to tilt the dampers very subtly so that flats 
hit the strings slightly ahead of trichords, and this helps but 
doesn't eliminate the problem. Different damper felt doesn't seem to 
help, though I can't say I have tried everything (haven't tried Yamaha 
or Kawai, for instance).
                 I am at a loss what to do to avoid this other than to 
change hammer 
alignment and shift parameters so that all strings are always struck 
by all hammers. I am beginning to suspect this may be a major reason 
why the Steinway basement guys decided to make that change to their 
standard procedure. While I like to have the two string tonal palette 
available, the tradeoff of that return noise seems to wipe out the 
advantage.
                 Does anyone else have thoughts on how to resolve this 
issue?
Regards,
Fred Sturm
fssturm at unm.edu
http://www.createculture.org/profile/FredSturm



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