radical vertical piano soft pedal regulation

[Scott Jackson]

Tom,
I just discovered that someone in Australia has sympathy with your idea. Two
articles published by Ronald Sharp in the new journal of the Australasian
Piano Tuners and Technicians Association discuss exactly this sort of
regulation. The pdf of Bridges August 2008 can be found at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/APTTA_Technician/files/

A couple of quotes follow.
>From "The Domestic Piano":

"All other things being equal, the greater the distance traveled by the
hammer, the greater the speed possible and therefore the greater the energy.
It is the distance the hammer is set to move that sets the loudness that the
piano can achieve. The soft pedal on upright pianos reduces hammer travel,
limiting available energy.

This distance also sets the speed at which one can play softly, or the
softness at which one can play at speed and the degree of dynamic expression
possible, especially soft expression. Test this on an upright piano. So why
are modern pianos, concert hall and domestic, made and regulated with the
same hammer travel?

When this writer regulates many domestic pianos, both grand and upright with
a reduced hammer travel and associated adjustments, a transformation in ease
of expression, soft playing and nice tone becomes apparent. Most pianos seem
to play loudly naturally and require much study to play softly with
expression and speed, if this is even possible at all on some of them."

And from "The Tragedy of the Modern Domestic Piano":

"With all other things being equal, including hammer mass and touch speed,
the perceived loudness of a piano note is approximately proportional to the
distance the hammer travels from rest to striking the strings. This is
easily shown on an upright piano using the soft pedal that alters hammer
travel, the true Soft Pedal.

Given the very great difference between the needs of the concert hall and
those of the normal home living room, it is curious that most pianos are
designed and regulated to have a similar hammer travel."

I can attach the complete text of the two articles if anyone is interested;
they are quite short.

Scott Jackson


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Sivak" <tvaktvak at sbcglobal.net >
To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Subject: radical vertical piano soft pedal regulation


  List I am presently doing a little playing, and the piano I have available
to me is a Kimball artist console. Drag. I did what I could to make it
bearable, regulating, voicing, etc., but I had a little surprise when I used
the soft pedal.

  The soft pedal was set so that when depressed it brought the hammers to
within a half inch of the keys. I thought, "Whoa", I'll have to fix that,
but to my surprise...it works like a charm.

  Usually, the soft pedal does practically nothing on a vertical piano. The
difference is barely noticeable. But on this piano, with the soft pedal set
like it is, you can play really soft, and with expression, too. It brings
the volume of the piano down to that comparable to one of those mute rails
you find on many pianos.

  Of course I had already regulated the let off prior to this discovery.
This wouldn't work if the let off was farther away from the string than the
hammer line, but when the rest of the action is regulated properly, I
suggest to you all that this is the way to regulate the soft pedal.

  Flame me if you will, but this is working for me. I'm sold. This makes the
soft pedal another legitimate source of expression on a vertical piano.
Regulated traditionally, it does next to nothing.

  Any thoughts?

  Tom Sivak
  Chicago