Wally, OK, so you've knocked off the big pieces. Let's look at what you've reported: >The bearing is not consistent. The tone is dead in the lower >treble section. Ring times in bass are 35-45 seconds, about 30 in the tenor >decreasing to 20 in the midrange, 6-8 seconds in lower treble, and mostly >about 5-6 seconds in upper treble until extreme end of piano. > This does not sound all that unfamiliar to me. The next stuff I would look at, if you have not already, would include: - bearing, measured several different ways. I use a combination of methods, most of which have been discussed in the Journal at various times. The reason is that I like having a more composite picture of what is going on. - strike point? I know, it doesn't affect ring time, but it sure can affect how much you can maximize what _is_ there. (In this catagory, I would include hammer shape, hardness, etc.) - what change, if any, can you effect by changing the position of the nose bolt? From the sounds of things, even a small change of bearing might be of some use. If you wind up with little, or negative bearing (and, since this isn't a Rippen), you may want to see about grinding down the aliquots. If there is too much, then shim them up. In any event, try to get as close as you reasonably can to about a 1 to 1.5o deflection on a string stretched from the Capo, across the bridge (from which you have temporarily removed a couple of sample unisons), and measure the distance from the string to the top of the aliquot (at the latter's peak) _just_ as the string _first_ touches what is, hopefully, the leading edge of the bridge. I look for about a millimeter or so of deflection. Others with stronger math skills can give you a more formal description of this process. Also, I think Nick Gravagne has written about this method in the Journal (within recent memory). If the board is a flat as you suggest, it may well be that the very best you can hope to do is to make the poor thing a little more comfortable. Joel's point about the theoretically perfect soundboard is well taken, but not really practical (as he pointed out). Where that theory is applicable here is that you may need to make the bearing as nearly a mirror image of whatever the board is doing in order to get any kind of sound at all. That is, if there is (relatively) little or no stress on the board, it will have the greatest chance of being able to produce whatever it is capable of producing. It always comes as a shock to some folk when they finally realize that not every piano sounds like Horrorwitz' (and who would want to?). >Also, I called Steinway, but the party I requested has not called me back >yet. Of course, to play the game correctly, I shall try again .... (sigh) > And try, and try, and try.... I hope there is something of value in there for you. Good luck. Horace Horace Greeley Stanford University email: hgreeley@leland.stanford.edu voice mail: 415.725.9062 LiNCS help line: 415.725.4627
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