information for a dissertation

[Isaac OLEG SIMANOT]

Hello all ,

I'm a piano technician who works often for pianist having to prepare the
piano.

The little stickers on the dampers are often not easy to peel and I have to
use a product to solve the gum.

But the most important damage is done when they insert things between
strings, without taking care of engaging the sustain pedal before. Here is
my comment :

As we probably cant help pianist to do that sort of things sometime , the
most important thing I have to say is :

ALWAYS ENGAGE THE SUSTAIN PEDAL (DAMPERS HIGH) BEFORE INSERTING OR PUTTING
OFF ANYTHING BETWEEN THE STRINGS , BASS OR PLAIN WIRE.

I had to replace damper wedges on the bass trichords of a 2 years old
Steinway last week, just one hour before the concert, the cut felt was
ringing between 2 adjacent strings.

To be honest I may say that it is sometime a tuner which insert its muting
strip without the pedal engaged, with the same result.

Regarding the stickers on dampers, in the treble and medium, a better place
can be on the first row of bridge pins (without contact to the strings of
course) There they are easier to take off.

Hope that helps.

Isaac OLEG

Concert service

> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]De la part
> de antares
> Envoye : jeudi 14 fevrier 2002 18:58
> A : pianotech@ptg.org
> Objet : Re: information for a dissertation
>
>
> Hello Laurie Hudicek,
>
> I am a piano technician in Holland.
> I have worked for many pianists who are involved in contemporary
> music where
> 'prepared piano' is often used.
> I also work for the Amsterdam Conservatory and there are very
> many pianists
> who like to  experiment with prepared piano.
>
> I can imagine that musicians like to 'fiddle around' with a piano
> to get all
> sorts of weird sounds out of the instruments.
> From the piano technicians point of view however it is mostly a disaster.
> Why?
>
> Because pianists do things that piano technicians normally speaking would
> not do, like touching bass strings with sweaty hands, putting stickers on
> dampers, use chalk on strings (for marks) put stickers on strings, put all
> kinds of metal objects on or in between strings etc etc.
>
> From my piano technicians point of view it is strictly forbidden to touch
> dampers at all.
> I know quite a few pianists and not one of them has experienced
> the grueling
> training I had in several piano factories. Especially the
> remembrance of my
> training in preparing grand piano dampers at Yamaha in Japan is enough to
> get me very mad when I see otherwise innocent pianists fooling around with
> the so very sensitive grand dampers.
> Putting stickers on dampers, which is very common among pianists, always
> leaves behind a residue of sticker glue, because the pianists have no idea
> how sticky the glue is and besides, they use the stickers, but never take
> the polite trouble to remove them after the concert. And if they
> do so, the
> dampers often will be twisted and bent because the sticker does
> not come off
> easily.
> Sweaty or moist hands will leave corrosion marks on the bass strings and
> steel strings.
> etc etc.
>
> I think that you will get my point when I say that they should
> only use the
> piano for this purpose with the help and advice of the (piano) technician
> involved,
>
>
>
>
> friendly greetings
> from
>
> Antares,
>
> Amsterdam, Holland
>
> "where music is, no harm can be"
>
> visit my website at :  http://www.concertpianoservice.nl/
>
>
> > From: LHudicek@AOL.COM
> > Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org
> > Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 08:16:48 EST
> > To: pianotech@ptg.org
> > Subject: information for a dissertation
> >
> > Hello Piano Technicians,
> >
> > I am a pianist writing a dissertation on prepared piano and
> playing on the
> > inside of the piano and was wondering if I could get some
> thoughts from some
> > of you on the subject, good AND bad!  My goal is to write a
> document that
> > helps pianists who are starting this music for the first time.
> Hopefully, it
> > will help them, also, to not damage the instrument at all.
> >
> > Any strong feelings?
> >
> > Have you ever seen any damage from this type of music? (i.e.
> damage to the
> > strings, dampers, soundboard, etc?)
> >
> > Thank you!
> > Laurie Hudicek
> > lhudicek@aol.com
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>