Silent Series

[Larry Fisher]

Yo All,  (as opposed to y'all)

Aside from the fact that I wished most lovely little BRATS would play
silent pianos until they're old enough to spit further than I can, I will
say that pianos equipped with such devices are a whole new doorway for
piano ownership.

I've installed a few QuietTimes and have seen a few Silent Series pianos.
The difference between the two in the stop rail mechanism is the position
of the rail in relation to the hammer.  QT is supposed to be positioned as
close to the hammer as possible without interferring with it's travel.  SS
positions theirs some distance from the hammer.  Also the pivot point for
the rail in QT is about a quarter inch away from the padded part of the
rail (when viewed from the end).  The pivot point in SS is over an inch
away (if memory serves).  Add the distance from the hammer along with the
pivot's distance from the padded (point of impact) area of the rail and
you've got lots of room for "play" or movement created by the shock of the
hammer hitting the rail.  Or in other words, on impact, the rails move
slightly absorbing the impact.  SS moves a whole lot more than QT by nature
of it's design.  To overcome this, Yamaha has increased the let off during
SS activation (on grands anyway, I'm not sure of uprights) by way of a
"knife" similar to the sostenuto knife on grands.  This knife or wedge
shaped bar moves into position under the jack tender creating sooner let
off via an additional bump near the end of the fly of the jack.  QT is
installed to stop the hammer at let off or at most, 4mm away from the
string.  The rail is mounted quite near the hammer so shank bending on
impact is not a consideration, and the rail is quite ridgid by nature so
the let off is not changed from the in use or out of use positions.

I've seen some traffic on the rec.music.makers.piano newsgroup regarding
the touch of the SS pianos.  What I've read is not favorable towards the
product.  I've not had the chance to work directly with any SS pianos to
see if the change in touch could be reduced, but Yamaha specs call for 10mm
(I think) of let off and usually their products are designed in such a way
that modifying them is out of the picture.  Yamaha enthusiasts claim they
can't feel the difference, while a group of people in the newgroup say they
can.  I played one and wished I had the time and opportunity to work with
it to minimize the effect.  I like Yamaha products and enjoy working with
tech support at the factory, and have found Yamaha products to be well
engineered, however the SS pianos I've encountered have fallen short of
their usual mark, IN MY OPINION TO WHICH I'M ENTITLED.

Lar

PS.  I love teaching small kids how to be brats.  Sipping loudly from a
glass, gargling out loud, belching deeply, shooting water betwixt one's
teeth, and repeating what some one is saying while they're saying it are
just a few of my impromptu classes that I teach, uh free of charge by the
way.  PARENTS BEWARE!!
                                    Larry Fisher RPT
   specialist in players, retrofits, and other complicated stuff
      phone 360-256-2999 or email larryf@pacifier.com
         http://www.pacifier.com/~larryf/ (revised 10/96)
           Beau Dahnker pianos work best under water