da needles

[antares@euronet.nl]

Hi David,

What you described is something that happens to most technicians on 
'the frontier'.
I have had this experience a couple of times and indeed, the only 
lesson to be learned is that basically voicing for so called important 
people should always be done in their presence.
The other lesson we always have to learn is to be stingy with da 
needles.
I have learned this in particular with my most difficult and demanding 
customer : the Concertgebouw. My personal ear told me to make the 
Steinway 'beautiful' and so very very acceptable...
The acoustics of the hall and the combination of pianist and orchestra 
told me I was wrong.
It was a terrifying lesson.

In the end I was fighting, literally, for power. Squeeze, push, bang, 
needle, file, regulate etc...if only for more power.
It is a painful lesson, but invaluable for the future.

My sympathy, and think of the gorgeous California sun! Hey!

Friendly greetings from,

Antares

Where 'music' is, no harm can be.......





On maandag, jan 13, 2003, at 16:19 Europe/Amsterdam, David Andersen 
wrote:

> Hello all-----I had a traumatic time on Friday; I'm still affected by 
> it
> today, Sunday, but I'm moving on.
>
> Tuned and did a complete voicing ten days ago on a Steinway D, early
> '80's, with 8-year-old
> Abel hammers, Renner shanks & whippens---hammers had been described as
> "hard to control" by the owner (a wealthy lady, very nice and smart, 
> who
> has set up her house as a performance venue with the D and a Hamburg C
> next to it) and are scheduled to be replaced in late spring---the owner
> LOVED the tuning and voicing I had done, and had agreed that I would 
> come
> back to tune and tweak the piano before the performance last
> night--Saturday-- by a rather famous performer and teacher.
> Friday was the only time we could both schedule the time.....***mistake
> #1***.....performance pianos should be worked on as close to the
> performance as possible.....So.  I got there on Friday, met the
> artist---very kind, nice, self-effacing woman---heard her play; and we
> both agreed that the treble was strident, and the rest of the piano was
> pretty OK---perhaps a little on the bright side, but OK.  She left for
> lunch, saying she would be back in 1.5 hours to help me with the 
> voicing.
> Meanwhile, the owner told me how many hours the piano had been played
> since I tuned and voiced it last (about 15-20 relatively easy 
> hours---not
> at concert force) and further told me that the piano would be played at
> least 4-6 hours before the performance, by the artist, AT concert 
> force.
>
> OK then.  I tuned the piano; the temperament was still almost perfect;
> the notes at the low end of the treble bridge had come loose a little;
> the whole capo section was slightly low; the bass unisons were subtly
> phasing.  With the fresh tuning, the hammers sounded even more strident
> than they had. The tuning, with coffee break, had taken about 1.3 
> hours.
> I asked if the artist was back, was told not yet.
> ****Mistake #2****:  never stick a needle in a hammer without the 
> artist
> present, if at all possible.
> Let the artist play the freshly tuned piano---there may be a big enough
> psycho-acoustic illusion happening that they say---"it sounds 
> great---you
> don't need to do anything else..."  or they may say go ahead with the
> voicing.
>
> So---due to a combination of subtle ego and sincere confidence that I
> knew enough about this set of hammers, and Abels in general, to make a
> nice positve change, I started voicing.
> ***Mistaker # 3: never assume your preference in piano tone, or the
> owner's preference, in this case, is the artist's preference.  I had in
> my mind the intent to serve the owner's tone perception.  Sincere, and
> usually good, but wrong in that situation. I got the stridency out of 
> the
> treble, and then the rest of the piano sounded a bit out of balance 
> with
> the newly-voiced treble, so I went over the rest of the piano very
> lightly in my usual conservative way---mark the notes that don't fit
> their neighbors, make them fit their neighbors, and listen again.  
> When I
> was done---maybe a half-hour later, the piano sounded, to me, very
> beautiful:  golden and throaty at piano and mezzo, starting to snarl at
> forte, and snarling & snapping at double forte.  I played it, and the
> owner and I oohed and aahed over the sound.
>
> In about 15 minutes (1.5 hours late) the artist returned, immediately 
> sat
> down at the piano, played, and said, "what did you do to this?"
> I said, "I took the stridency out of the top, as we agreed, and then
> balanced the rest of the piano to the top."
> She said, "Well, you've killed the middle of the piano...."  and I saw
> all the trust and good will leave her body, and leave the situation.  
> She
> then made continual over-the-top, apocryphal statements about the piano
> being dead, the hammers being "gone," the "quality" being "gone out of
> the piano."
>
> I was freaking.  Every statement she made about the piano was like a 
> body
> blow, and I took it personally. I realized, with a sinking heart, that
> she would not be collaborative and work with me, through filing,
> pounding, ironing, or subtle lacquering,  to get back the edge or snarl
> at low volume that she had liked. I was, as far as she was concerned,
> Typhoid Mary.  I did the right thing; I did not yell, scream, or debate
> her; I took responsibility for my mistake, and offered to help in any 
> way
> possible to rectify the situation. I offered to come back the next
> day---the day of the concert---hours before the concert on my dime and
> work with the piano----and actually, I knew the hammers would come up 
> and
> be fine if she played them 4-6 hours.  But SHE had zero trust in that. 
> In
> her eyes, I was toast, and I knew her fear and panic would affect and
> probably engulf the owner. I don't expect to hear from the owner again.
>
> So, I felt bad for a day, then I moved on; I realized I did everything 
> I
> could do, I acted in an honorable professional manner, and I took the
> hit.  That's show biz.
>
> I will never stick a needle in a performance piano again without making
> my best efforts to have the artist with me.  I will rededicate myself 
> to
> being a conservative voicer.  I will not allow an artist's fear, lack 
> of
> trust, and ignorance about how a piano works to affect me so deeply.
>
> Hope this helps someone in some way........my best to all.....
>
> David Andersen
> Malibu, CA
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
>