Steinway Sustain

[Tony Caught]

Hi Kevin,

----- Original Message -----
From: Kevin E. Ramsey <ramsey@extremezone.com>

>     Very good listing, Tony. I know just where you're coming from, having
> been in the exact same position myself.
>     This brings up an interesting topic, which I have wondered about
myself,
> quite a bit lately. What's the humidity in Australia like, where you live?

Humidity in Darwin is high at this time of year, around 80% at 32 degrees
Celsius. In about 3 weeks we come into our dry season (winter) it doesn't
rain for four months, temp never goes over 32 Degrees C and humidity hovers
around 40%. Couldn't ask for better weather. Oh yes, and the barramundi bite
big time.

> Steinway really forces their sound boards into the rim. They're better in
a
> dry climate than a humid one. Could you perhaps have too much downbearing?

Actually the piano lives in its own permentally airconditiond room with the
temp set at 20 C. Not a problem. If the piano is left out more than 6 hrs
the pitch starts to rise, so my rules are ........get it back in there.

>     My question to the more experienced people, ( Del, where are you?) is
> what effect does too much downbearing have on tone?  Wouldn't that make
the
> board so high that it would transfer the energy more quickly than we would
> like?

I have always figured that when a string is struck and the energy is
transferred to the string, the string then passes the energy onto the
soundboard. Now energy = sustain/volume. If the volume is high the sustain
will be short. If there is too much downbearing the sustain will be short
and the sound loud. A piano will low down bearing will have long sustain but
only medium volume and vici versa. Got to be a balance somewere.

>     Hey, I'm just really trying to come up with some answers here, and at
> the same time learn a little myself.
>     I think Jim C. does searches for listings that reference him. Jim
> Coleman Sr. ( You there, bud?)
>     There, can you help us out Jim?
> Btw; if you regulated the action not too long ago, ( you said some time
ago,
> how long?)  it is probably not due to a regulation problem. You'll
probably
> find that it's still OK, and still be asking yourself why does it have so
> little sustain.

This is what I want to find out.

>     BTW 2: You remember what I said about shoulder needling? Well, today,
I
> had an Asian piano that had ONE note that was all attack, and no sustain.
I
> needled the heck out of it: helped, but not as much as I hoped for, so I
> guess I've got a little learning to do myself. ( Yes, I checked everything
> else too, sheesh, you don't think I read this stuff here?)

Remember what Del said about soundboards. Today they are all made too thick
(not shaped in the bass), makes the board stiffer, requires harder/heavier
hammers to excite the strings, lots of volume but no sustain.  Wouldn't mind
betting that if you cut the soundboard clear of the rim in several sections
(as Ron Overs did in the Yamaha G2 in one section) then put Abel hammers on
,you could have a decent sounding piano.
>
> Kevin E. Ramsey
> ramsey@extremezone.com
> ----- Original Message -----

Tony Caught ICPTG
Australia
caute@optusnet.com.au