Down on the Hitch Pin Web

[Alan W Deverell]

Bill, and others,

PS - for those NEW to this thread please read Bill's original quote
below first.

My pitch is:

It all depends upon whether there are, or are not, "carnivores" in the
"cavernous" dining hall where this 1901 Steinway B normally resides,
and, if there are, how many and upon what, or who, they have been
dining and how long ago since they dined:-)))

Moving the piano out of this "cavernous" environment and expecting to
re-condition the effects of years of this kind of exposure is bound to
provoke an identity crisis at the least. (Snapping, growling,
screaming and Images of a Jurassic Park for Pianos ? - Speilberg, a
comedy of terrible proportions exists here for your exploitation ?)

AlanD (from a land where there were Cannibals before there were Pianos
and where the Pianos now outnumber the Cannibals)

>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-pianotech@ptg.org
>[mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]On Behalf
>Of Bill Ballard
>Sent: Thursday, June 25, 1998 12:04 AM
>To: pianotech@ptg.org
>Cc: YBarn@aol.com
>Subject: Down on the Hitch Pin Web
>
>
>Esteemed Colleagues, I'd like to know what's real here, so pitch in
>
>A 1901 Stwy B (with a new belly at the factory restoration
>center in 1941)
>sits in the carvernous dining hall of a local private school
>and is tried
>(and selected for use) by pianists involved in a summer chamber music
>program for college-agers just down the road. This piano has very
>respectable resonance judging by the direct sound (not being
>fooled by the
>ambient reverberation of the dining hall).
>
>The piano gets moved to the summer music program's main
>performance stage,
>a small, nicely remodled barn (we're talking rural VT here,
>gang), and
>immediately the musicians complain that the top third of the
>piano is dead.
>My first reflex, to file hammers, sharpens up the sound, but
>the impression
>of poor balance of that region with the rest of the scale
>remains for the
>pianisit, violinist and cellist preparing for the season
>opener. We explore
>many ideas. Given the tropical RH here ever since the end of
>May and the
>unaimous description "it sounds stuffed up", we choose to
>run the powerful
>air conditioning full time (and set about 200W worth of desk
>lamps on the
>floor under the board) on the assumption that high RH increases crown
>increases downbearing increases board loading which
>decreases sustain. (The
>standard dial indicator reads 10-15 mils of db in that region, and db
>throughout is ample.) Maybe the hammers are
>water-logged,though they're all
>ready filed down to the nub.
>
>Yes, although both spaces are remodeled barns, the smaller
>space has no
>reverberance. (For years it has relied on direct sound, and
>the  consensus
>this morning is that the strings have no trouble projecting.)
>
>The pianist then mentions a technician once worked a miracle
>with a similar
>dead treble by adjusting the bolt which ties to the bell.
>(He has no idea
>in which direction.) I crank crank up 3/4 of a turn until the bolt is
>loose. The pianist plays, but nobody hears any difference. I
>go back down
>to the starting point, and beyond by 1/2 turn until it
>begins to require
>uncomfortable amounts of torque. In neither case does the
>dial indicator
>show a change in db. But going down, they all say, yeah that
>sounds more
>like it.
>
>What's going on here? Is there a real effect? There is of course Rick
>Davenport's oft-told story of Heiner Seinwald doing exactly
>this same thing
>(or recommending that Rick do the same). I can understand
>not seeing an
>immediate change in db on the way upwards, as  the plate might not
>immdiately react to take new upward freedom. But what gives in the
>direction down when the db doesn't show a change and the
>musicians hear a
>difference? Is the pianist simply getting used to the newly
>filed hammers?
>
>I less interested in suggestion on voicing (or for that matter, new
>strings/hammers which it badly needs, or even discreet sound
>reinforcing)
>than on people's specific experience with reseting the htich
>pin web at the
>bell.
>But I'll consider all comments (including the one about the
>santero priest).
>
>TIA
>
>Bill Ballard, RPT
>New Hampshire Chapter, PTG
>
>"May you work on interesting pianos."
>Ancient Chinese Proverb
>
>
>