Opinions Please

Richard Brekne Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no
Mon, 19 Mar 2001 09:24:41 +0100



Lance Lafargue wrote:

> Hey List,
> In evaluating a piano recently, I considered these questions and I'm curious
> what you think...
> 1)In your opinions, do kinked, dented, or bent (depending on what you want
> to call them) wire in the speaking length section near the agraffes and
> V-bar of a piano affect the piano's sound i.e., false beats?

I'd put it this way, anything that is the source of an inpresise termination for
the string can be the source or contribute significantly to falseness or other
types of nondesirable bi-sounds in a piano.

>
> 2)Does it affect the pianos tunability or the ability to tune good unisons?

Sure would. Anything extra noises are just that much more that will get in the
way of what you are trying to listen for. ETD's will get all mixed up as well at
some point. You can do some pretty good tuning in spite of these difficulties,
and the piano almost always sounds much better when played in a musical fashion
visa vi how we "play" when tuning.... but its certainly not as easy as a clean,
noise free instrument.

>
> 3)Would you say that a Steinway D, 5 years old with this condition
> throughout the tenor and lower treble is less desirable than one without the
> condition?

Sure thang... but then I have met more then one player of high regard that would
dissagree. Some folks actually like alot of that kind of extra sound..at least
to a point.. And I hear the same reasoning for it every time. "More Life"....
the piano sounds more lively... Personnally tho... and I suppose this is largely
because I am a tuner and definatly not a player..... I like them pretty clean.

>
> 4)Can this condition be _eliminated_ by any method short of restringing?
>   Thanks for your experienced opinions!

I dont think restringing in itself would help all that much... certainly not for
very long. If the instrument has developed lots of falseness its probably most
certainly because of a variety of reasons. Simply putting new strings on without
addressing these other problem areas isnt really going to solve the problem.
But if you include all these betterments in your definition of "restringing"
then yes... new strings and cleaning up / firming up all termination points will
most certainly have a notable positive affect. Retuning (or detuning as the case
may be)  the front duplex and if possible the rear ones may also be appropriate.

All of this is of couse in my very humble opinion....grin.

>
>
> Lance Lafargue, RPT
> Mandeville, LA
> New Orleans Chapter, PTG
> lancelafargue@bellsouth.net

--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway
mailto:Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no




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