Voicing M&H BB

[Tom Servinsky]

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Boy did Dale Erwin hit the nail on  the head or what?  Well put.
I too have had both ends of the spectrums with the late 70's M&Bs...both =
good and bad.  But if things are set up correctly, they can sound =
extremely good...I mean real nice. I too have a green monster hammer M&B =
BB, everything original which is incredible. On the other hand, more =
times than not, it arrows goes the other way. Fluffy hammers, poor =
pinning, loose knuckle leather, the list goes on and on.
His advise about trying several types of hammers and see what suits your =
fancy and the customer's is good advise. Remember sometimes the sound =
you think is best is contrary to the customer. =20
The issue with the Yamaha sound being hammered home with many listeners =
today is many customers expect all pianos to have that quality or =
characteristic of sound.
Do the pluck test, check the sustain through  out. Check the bearing, =
crown, etc. If all looks good, put on  your plaid pants and white shoes =
and do your hammer selling war dance.
Tom Servinsky,RPT
  ----- Original Message -----=20
  From: DALE ERWIN=20
  To: pianotech=20
  Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2001 10:35 AM
  Subject: Re: Voicing M&H BB


  Hey Ron O and list

      Although the Mason & Hamlin BB has tremendous potential I find =
that many especially from the late 1970's are tonally disappointing and =
some down right dismal  and it's not all hammer problems. I also have =
one from that era that's to die for and it had the green monsters and =
poor action  to start. What gives!!!
      Having worked on a many of these I think it's safe to say that =
when the bellywork is set up right they're truly  Glorious(with the =
break being the exception, BUT AS IS IN ANY GOOD PIANO ,THE BETTER THE =
BELLY SET UP THE LESS NOTICIABLE THESE WEAKNESSES ARE. (Sorry not =
shouting).  By setup I mean rib crowned,nicely diaphramized, nice bridge =
work and very healthy  and adequate amounts of bearing and voicing of =
course.  If this isn't the case then the kind o problems Terry F. is =
having will not lend themselves well to a Full Mason BB sound. It's a =
rather fickle system. It really needs a cutoff bar added as well as =
detuned front duplexes with less counterbearing angle as they frequently =
break strings.
       Who knows maybe you could get it to sound like a Yamaha if the =
boards that stingy.I.E loud attack short decay.  Terry do some plucking =
of the strings in the treble and if the sing freely and bloom with out =
plucking real hard you may have a chance with a good hammer.  Able, =
Ronsen and Isaac hammers all work well in these pianos. If you need =
samples I can send you some of each, I think.
     My suggestion would be to install a few of these  hammers and voice =
them and see which way the wind is blowing.

    Best---Dale Erwin

      =20
  =20

    ----- Original Message -----
    From: Overs Pianos
    Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2001 1:27 AM
    To: pianotech@ptg.org
    Subject: Re: Voicing M&H BB

    Terry,

    >Junk hammers? I'll buy that. But why the HUGE change in tone across =
the
    >break? I would think that if all the hammers are whatever grade of =
junk,
    >then this must go way beyond hammers only.
    >
    >Del or Ron? Any input from a belly/scaling perspective?

    While I am unsure whether the BB you describe bears any scaling or
    bridge layout resemblance to the current BB, I had a look and listen
    to the new BB which was displayed at Reno (at a quiet time in the
    loading dock after the convention when our piano was being loaded =
out
    on the Monday morning). My impression of this instrument was that =
the
    impedance matching across the break between the treble and bass
    bridge was perhaps one of most varied I had encountered on a 7'
    grand. Its even more dramatic than the Steinway B. Both get
    progressively thinner toned heading down towards the break, then
    'boomy' and 'fat' at the first note on the bass bridge.

    A quick look at the location (read distance) of the bridges out from
    the inner rim told the story. Tapping on the ends of the bridges
    further confirmed my suspicion (yes you can do this even when the
    piano is strung - try it!). The upper end of the bass bridge was
    located far away from the inner rim (as is typical on so many
    pianos), while the lower end of the treble bridge headed over =
towards
    the bass side to end up too close to the rim. The poor tonal
    transition was mostly a consequence of the bridge location on the
    board, but the 'hockey stick' treble scale didn't help either.  The
    tension was obviously falling away rather badly towards to lower
    tenor area of the long bridge. I would like to get a copy of the
    speaking lengths and wire diameters if any one has info on hand. If
    anyone's got the scale I would like to get it as an attachment. Send
    it to mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au

    When there is a major change in the response of the board over the
    break, there is nothing the voicer can do to fix the transition.

    Actually, I was somewhat disappointed at the design of the BB. I had
    heard so much about the piano before going to Reno, so I was
    expecting something really good.

    Ron O
    --
    ______________________________

    Website:  http://www.overspianos.com.au
    Email:        mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au
    ______________________________


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