tone sustain

[Frank Cahill]

Ron Nossaman wrote:
> 
> Hi Frank, annoyance interspersed.
> 
> At 10:29 PM 9/23/98 -0400, you wrote:
> >A long-time client just moved up to a Boston upright.  I gave the piano
> >its second tuning.  I had never worked on one of these pianos...it's
> >pretty much like a Kawai (I think they build it) or Young Chang.
> 
> * Easy Don, easy.
> 
> >The only complaint from the owner is that the upper notes do not sustain
> >very long. It's apparently very noticeable to her and her paino
> >teacher.
> 
> * Upper notes? How "upper"?
> 
> >I wonder...if I were to voice the hammers down, would that help matters?
> 
> * Probably not. See below.
> 
> >My guess is that the hammers are so hard that the intial amplitude it
> >quite high (loud with lots of prominant upper partials). Then the decay
> >time (sustain), while being normal, appears shorter because the extreme
> >change in amplitude from very loud to soft happens so quickly.
> >
> >I don't do much voicing, so I'm in above my head.
> >
> >Thanks
> >--
> >
> >Frank Cahill
> 
> * My guess is that the hammers are hard because they were hardened in an
> attempt to combat the sustain problem in the first place. Softening them
> will most likely just get you closer to the original problem the hardening
> was intended to cure. Checkmate. Hardening hammers won't improve sustain, it
> will just amplify the attack. Conversely, softening hammers will only
> ratchet the pain of the attack volume down a notch or two, but won't help
> the sustain any more than the hardening did. If you can get good sustain by
> plucking the string, it's probably a hammer problem. If plucking produces as
> short a sustain as hitting the string with the hammer, it's the soundboard (
> design/rib scale/condition) that is at fault and nothing you do will fix it
> (short of ripping out the board and starting over). Well, I suppose it could
> be string termination problems, in extreme cases, but it's most likely the
> soundboard. Sorry.
> 
> Specialist in personal opinions since Tuesday,
>  Ron


Thanks for the reply Ron and Joe,

Oh, if I offended anyone saying this Boston was like a Kawai or Young
Chang, no offense meant.  

Well, I was afraid that I could really do nothing.  At this point, I
have not been back yet to see were the problem is...which notes.  I
suspect it's the notes where the damper don't exist.

I'll try the plucking test and let you know what happened.

The other night I tuned a Samick grand.  Man, was the customer mad!!! 
He said that the paino sounded terrible, like a honky-tonk piano.  I
went back and tried to clean up some of the false beats, but the piano
is full of them every where.  That's not what he was mad about, however.

He didn't like the extremely bright tone of the piano.  I had brought
the pitch up, mostly in the upper half of the paino, and he noticed the
increased brightness.  I told him I could reduce the brightness wjith
voicing, but not tuning. So...he's calling the Samick rep to see what
they say.  

I've had better weeks.  Oh well, Fridays almost here.
-- 

Frank Cahill
Associate Member
Northern Va