<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <html><head><style type="text/css"></style><title>Re: Pinning and Tone</title></head><body> <div>Dear Ed & List,</div> <div><br></div> <div>In a previous incarnation, I tuned the Oak Ridge public school pianos and had clients in the area.  Perhaps that is way I sometimes glow in the dark...</div> <div><br></div> <div>My opinion is that you can alter the tonal characteristics simply by removing a shank from the rail and reinstalling it, unless you get the spacing<b> exactly</b> as it was before.  Not only can the flange rotate, but it can also move to the left and right, and forward and backward--even with a Steinway flange.  If you change the pinning, then you have potentially altered the traveling, clearance, spacing, and mating of the hammer to the strings.  The more pronounced the string grooves, the more significant these changes usually are.</div> <div><br></div> <div>So, as Jim pointed out early on, unless one can devise a testing situation where all variables are controlled, it is very difficult to attribute<b> perceived</b> tonal changes to the pinning alone.  Typically one might re-pin hammer flanges in the course of an action reconditioning, where hammer filing and action regulation variables are also introduced into the soup.</div> <div><br></div> <div>As far as the<b> perceived</b> nature of the tonal changes:  some years ago a very fine pianist on our piano faculty stopped by our shop to ask me to voice down the piano in her studio, an instrument she personally used for hours each day.  A few days later she stopped by again to rather apologetically ask me to bring it back up tonally, as she felt I had over-voiced it.  A couple of days after that she stopped by once again to thank me profusely for my attentions to her piano.  She told me that it was just perfect and not to change a thing.  Of course, you have probably guessed it by now:  with my failing memory I forgot about her first request, and never touched the piano thereafter.  Sometimes we hear what we expect to hear or want to hear.</div> <div><br></div> <div>I will be interested to see the results of tests using scientific methods, although I expect the changes to be subtle within the range of friction that we have been discussing.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Charles</div> <x-sigsep><pre>-- </pre></x-sigsep> <div>Charles Ball, RPT<br> School of Music<br> University of Texas at Austin<br> ckball@mail.utexas.edu</div> </body> </html>