voiceing

[Farrell]

Hi Phil. I'm not sure if you are asking how to voice, or how to have the owner give you the go-ahead to voice. I assume the latter. I don't often bring it up - with some folks you just know.....   But of the few where I do tell them we can get rid of that steely/brassy harsh sound and make it more mellow, maybe 25% to 40% of them will say to go ahead. What I usually do is explain how hammers get hard over the years from banging on the strings, and then I find a note on the piano - usually there will be one that is not so bright - and play the harsh one, then the not-so-harsh one and back and forth and tell them we can make all the notes sound like the not-so-harsh one or even more mellow if they desire. I don't push it. 

Just did a dinky YC 150 cm grand (or not so as the case may be) at Mt. Tarot Missionary Baptist Church this morning which sounded like it had titanium hammers in it. I did the above thing with the pastor - you could see his eyes clouding over. Later I was able to find the gal that bangs on that thing on Sundays. Now this poor girl has to compete with the choir and the Big Bad B3 and two Leslies. I explained to her about the brassy sound. There was one note in the bass that was not so bright - it was likely a tubby string rather than a softer hammer - but she got the point. She said "oh, yeah!" and she might work on the pastor for approval of some work like that. I make it clear that it is a matter of personal preference.

Anyway, that's what I do. Gotta realize though, most folks are not interested. I only bring it up if there seems to be some awareness and interest in the well-being of their piano.

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Bondi" <tito@PhilBondi.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2002 5:00 PM
Subject: Re: voiceing


>Twenty minutes later they all came back _with their teacher_ to make sure I wasn't going to >voice the piano down.  Another reminder that while we have our opinions, the people who are >doing the playing have to have the final say.

AMEN Dave..it's been my experiences to date that if the customer is asking, then there's reason for in-depth discussion..if YOU suggest that maybe we can 'do this or do that' to the voice, it is _usually_ met, again, my experiences, with a NO verdict,no matter what the shape of the hammers are, no matter how tactful you are, and no matter how professionally you approach the situation.

If someone reading this can tell me what their 'magic' method is for getting a piano from sounding like a bucket of broken glass to something resembling a piano, I'm listening. There's a few 'buckets' out here that could be better if they were 'properly maintained'.

AMEN,
Phil