PIANOTECH digest 257

Mike Bingham 71672.467@CompuServe.COM
Wed, 10 Apr 1996 12:11:06 -0400 (EDT)


>>....it seems that alot of the concert pianists that come here, especially
those from the
>>NY/Russian/and Liszt  traditions use the una-corda pedal alot and use
>>various shift positions for tone colors......

  A few years back I was subing for a Russian techncian who was maintaining a
Baldwin B for a NYC off-Bdwy show. The piano was an integral part of the show.
When I firtst met the artist, she asked if I could voice the mid section tenor
and treble hammers. When I checked the una-corda I discovered that the keyframe
was riding on the unacorda lever so I released the "suspension" and checked the
voicing and found that tone was very weak.

 I used my standard mixture of pyralin & acetone, voiced up the sections in time
for the show. When I next met the artist she complained that "fumes" were coming
out the piano during her performance and that it affected her performance. When
I explained that is how I voice-up the hammers she said no more of that nonsense
and told me that her Real Piano Technician who was from Russia  "voiced" the
piano by adjusting the lifter rod on the una-corda!

 The short of it was that the hammers were completely needled out, shot. The
other technician, whom I never did get to talk with, kept using the una-corda
shift to "voice" the piano to the artists approval, and that was how I learned
the "quick and dirty voicing" technique.

Mike Bingham
PTG Associate
Disklavier/Piano Disc Technician
Toms River, NJ
71672.467@compuserve.com







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