David,
I totally agree with you.
Since 1987 when the PC became common I have worked with scale calculation and as you say integrating these three elements is very important.
In fact I have never done major changes like powerful boostings, but I have changed most of the grands i have rebuilded, and they are many. At least I smooth out the scale.
I am very carefully in selecting hammers and I buy basstrings from the best stringmaker available, Hellerbass in Germany.
I find it difficult though with brands like Steinway, Bösendorfer and some others because pianists often buy these instruments because they want a specific sound, so who am I to tell them which sound is good or bad?
Another experience I got is that when you analyse scales and look at tensions, IH and so on, you can find instruments that are totally different from each other in sound and size, but look identical in the scale values. For me this means that I must use my experience and remember how different instruments sound, because the scale values are not enough. This is also the reason why I actually dont like to talk about changing of scales. To me and my customers the result is the important point so to judge you must play and listen.
So far I have only have good experiences with scaling, but thats what everybody say, aint it :o)
David Love <davidlovepianos at comcast.net> skrev: Just in case I wasn’t clear, the idea of integrating these three elements (scale, soundboard and hammer) is something, the importance of which, Del Fandrich really has impressed upon me and I’ve heard it successfully put into practice many times over the past several years. While there are clearly choices to be made about what level appeals to us, the idea of integrating the three elements is, in my experience, critical.
David Love
davidlovepianos at comcast.net
www.davidlovepianos.com
-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of David Love
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2007 4:55 PM
To: 'Pianotech List'
Subject: RE: RE: Re: Steinway B Scale Conversion
While it does end up being about what we are hearing, there are some theoretical issues that are worth addressing. In the case of wholesale changes to the overall scale on a Steinway (as you suggest), I would be concerned that the increase in tensions could be problematic. Not only might it increase the total load putting quite a bit of additional stress on the plate, a significant increase in overall string tension on the original board would tend to dis-integrate the match between string scale, soundboard design and hammer density/mass/resilience. Not a new idea, as is nicely illustrated in the recent book edited by Del Fandrich “Tone Building”, but one that seems to have been lost. Recent trends by some scalers to increase tension in order to boost power illustrates this nicely (if you’ve heard one). Increases in overall tension on the existing soundboard (which itself has likely lost some of it’s own spring tension) can create an imbalance that, while might be
compensated for by reduced bearing and reduced hammer mass and/or density, would probably create other tonal problems. Changing scales to smooth out irregularities is one thing. Wholesale changes in tension, in my view, need to be accompanied by matching changes in soundboard design and hammer selection and the resulting piano will be quite different from the original not matter what you do. While there is clearly some tolerance this way or that way, there does seem to be the need to keep things reasonably integrated: high tension, stiffer assembly, denser hammer; or low tension, lighter assembly, softer hammer. A random shuffling of the deck seems to be asking for trouble.
David Love
davidlovepianos at comcast.net
www.davidlovepianos.com
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