Great post. Thanks so much, Jim. You're the kind of piano technician artists love and long for---bad-ass yet always learning, always an apprentice. Good job. David A. On Sep 28, 2009, at 2:49 PM, Jim Busby wrote: > Cy, > > I’ve asked Vince Mrykalo to respond because he has definite opinions > on it. I hope he will. But here is what Vince taught me, and what I > do; > > I strive for both! A balance weight of 35-38 and DW from 50-52. (and > UW for reasonable F) Some may argue the numbers with me, and I must > say that I “try” to get these kind of numbers, but sometimes I’ll go > with a higher BW (39-41) if the owner seems to like that feel. When > they play several and keep coming back to something they like, I try > to take note of that. Here at BYU we have many pianos to play and > try/experiment with. Whatever I do I want it to be consistent > throughout the piano. This seems to be more important than some of > the numbers we become so anal about. > > Our Hamburg D is very consistently 38 BW, 52 DW. One pianist that > all our piano faculty nearly bowed to in honor every time they > mentioned his name said “I have played in every major concert hall > in the world and this is the most even touch and voicing of any > piano I’ve ever played.” (Vince did the work, not me.) So this is > why I chose those numbers as my default. > > Another great pianist once told me that he wished technicians would > stop trying to make all pianos play and sound the same!! (I had > asked what advice he could give me…) He said “Let the piano be what > it wants to be; this one brighter, that one darker, one heavier and > another lighter touch.” This really opened things up for me. We > walked around and he played several pianos (all Steinways at Snow > College) and he said “This one would be great for (such and such) > piece. And that one for (such and such) concerto. And this one has a > very heavy touch compared to that one, but I like them both!” In > fact I’ve had three giants of the piano at different times tell me > the same basic things. All were amazing and had won about every > major competition you’ve ever heard of. When I do have their ear > (and it’s easy when they’re in rural Utah with time to waste) I > always ask the question “what advice can you give me as a technician”. > > I know Fred Sturm would agree that he likes a variety in his pianos, > but your question as to “which” is more desirable BW or DW, I’m not > sure can be answered easily. > > My 4 bits. > > Regards, > Jim Busby > > From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] > On Behalf Of Cy Shuster > Sent: Monday, September 28, 2009 8:54 AM > To: pianotech at ptg.org > Subject: Re: [pianotech] Even balance weight or even downweight > > I didn't see any replies on this. It's a great question -- any > takers? > > --Cy-- > > Cy Shuster, RPT > Albuquerque, NM > www.shusterpiano.com > > On Sep 24, 2009, at 5:58 PM, David Love wrote: > > > While working with one of my colleagues to help him through the ins > and outs of the Stanwood basics we got into a brief discussion about > what is desirable from the pianist’s point of view: uniform balance > weight or uniform downweight. It’s easy enough to set up the > balance weight system so that it gradually increases in proportion > to the ever decreasing friction in order to achieve a uniform > downweight. The charts below illustrates that. I’m curious for > those of you who use the balance weight system whether you ever > target a uniform downweight instead and what the overall reaction > is. I typically do not, though I’m considering trying it on the > next action. I do sometimes get comments that the upper end of the > piano is too light and it seems like a reasonable approach. One > side benefit of doing it this way is a higher up weight in the upper > end of the piano which, presumably, would reap benefits in terms of > repetition. > > The key didn’t copy for some reason so it is as follows: (if the > charts don’t appear open the email in html rather than plain text). > > Blue circles are down weight > Red diamonds are balance weight > Blue Triangles are up weight > Red circles are friction > Note 1 is on the far left, 88 on the far right > > > <image001.png> > > <image002.png> > > > David Love > www.davidlovepianos.com > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090928/a7227ee4/attachment-0001.htm>
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