Maybe the bigger question is what constitutes improved performance. While there's a tendency to think of improved performance as faster shut off it isn't necessarily. In fact, a shut off which is too efficient can make the piano sound a bit dry. Also, getting faster shutoff usually means heavier underlevers or springs and that can have a negative impact on the difference between playing with the pedal engaged versus not. Defining what is acceptable in terms of the speed of shut off isn't always that easy but I think, assuming shut off happens within a reasonable time, that the more important thing is that the shut of is uniform from note to note or at least graduates smoothly through the scale. For that some "voicing" of the dampers is always required not just with getting the dampers seated and things completely shut off but with attention to the speed of shut off between adjacent notes. That particular aspect of voicing the piano often gets by people, even those who set very high standards in other areas. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com Consider the tiny little dampers even on concert grands of 100 or so years ago (not to mention square pianos!). It would appear that damping efficiency was not a great priority back then. Of course, we can significantly improve damping efficiency fairly easily, today. As with any design change, consideration must be given to preserving the original design vs. improving performance. I am generally inclined to improve performance unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise. Frank Emerson -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20110209/222acf15/attachment.htm>
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