Strike weight and tone: Ideal curve

[Farrell]

I suspect David Stanwood's SW curves, which represent research for many
years on hundreds (???thousands???) - many, many - of pianos, are a real
good guide for great performance. However, just like different tuning styles
and different basic piano designs (Japanese, American, European), one will
sometimes have preferences that extend out beyond what someone has
identified as being ideal. I think it is great that you can listen to an
arrangement that a respected someone recommends, and decide to do it a
little different.

Always consider that if you find you need to add more weight to the bass
hammers, a great system is the hammer leading setup that David Stanwood uses
and is available from Pianotek.

Terry Farrell
Piano Tuning & Service
Tampa, Florida
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Love" <davidlovepianos@hotmail.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Cc: <stanwood@tiac.net>
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2001 12:52 AM
Subject: Strike weight and tone: Ideal curve


> This is a continuation from my previous post.
>
> Without having done a thorough study, but based on my experience and
taste,
> I am inclined to think that were one to graph the ideal strike weight
curve
> with relation to tone production that the curve would be somewhat steeper
> than the is represented by David Stanwood's full/medium/low designations.
I
> find that the bass (depending on the piano, of course, but all things
being
> equal) wants a fuller SW and that the treble wants a lower SW.  Thus, if
one
> were to graph this line, it would tend to be a steeper curve.  I have
never
> found any advantage in the very top of the piano being in the full SW
zone.
> Despite the energy that may be produced by a fuller strike weight in the
> upper area of the piano, I'm not sure that more enery results in better
> tone, or even more projection.
>
> Which brings up a problem often encountered with Steinway hammers (which I
> still use).  The natural curve of these hammers tends to be very flat.
That
> is, the relative difference between the bass and treble hammers is small.
> Uniform tapering usually results in the bass hammers being too light and
the
> treble hammers being too heavy (I am talking only about tone production
> qualities).  I am recently more inclined to graduate my tapering so that
the
> bass hammers remain (in Stanwood terms) in the full to medium zone while
the
> treble hammers are taken farther down to the low zone.  Additionally, in
the
> treble I have begun to pull the staple and trim the lower part of the
hammer
> felt down to the tenor break (50-52), not simply for weight control but
for
> tonal purposes.  To me, it seems to sound better this way.
>
> I am curious about anyone else's experience/opinion in this area.
>
>
> David Love
>
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