<div>On 11/5/07, Tom Servinsky <<a href="mailto:tompiano@bellsouth.net">tompiano@bellsouth.net</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">Sorry John, I guess I totally miss-understood your point. Sorry! As far as the foam on the top, that does quiet things down quite a bit. So much so, the player feels like the piano is sounding from another room. Here's my take on things: The one's doing the most complaining are the ones who are doing the listening, not ones doing the playing. It's the overall volume taking over the household that bothers most listeners. Thus the foam on the bottom of the piano really retards the sound coming from that section of the piano. In our part of the world, we have a lot of extremely hard floors with no rugs or carpets under the piano ( marble and stone). The sounds bounces very quickly off of the bottom and shoots around the rooms in droves. Adding the foam will slow that problem down to a crawl. What's interesting is that the player can barely notice any difference in sound. Adding the foam on the top adds another effect as it's  diminishes the sound to the player. If the piano is being strictly as a player piano, the foam on top will help tremendously. However, if the piano is going to be played by a pianist  they will be shocked with the diminished sound. If the piano is being used strictly  by a pianist, I will opt not to add foam to the top. There's a psychologically phenomenon that occurs when the piano is being played by a person, as the piano is expected to be heard. When the piano is being played by a player mechanism, people have a tendency to think the volume of the piano should behave like a stereo receiver. You should be able to go to a complete, distant, ambient sound of Volume 1. Of course, that's an impossibility when dealing with the complexities of a piano. But that's what I have been able to derive from the comments about volume and pianos. It comes down to what your end games needs to be. Tom Servinsky ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Formsma" < <a href="mailto:formsma@gmail.com">formsma@gmail.com</a>> To: "Pianotech List" <<a href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</a>> Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2007 8:09 PM Subject: Re: Acoustic foam > On 11/4/07, Tom Servinsky <<a href="mailto:tompiano@bellsouth.net">tompiano@bellsouth.net</a>> wrote: > >> There is a big difference between foam mattress material and acoustical >> baffle foam.  Recording studios having been using this material for years >> to >> insulate the interior space against outside noise. Can't say I have ever >> seen a recording studio pad the walls with mattress foam. I'm not sure >> how >> the acoustical/physical characteristics plays into the egg crate shape, >> but >> it does contain sound extremely well. >> That being said, any material (be it foam, blankets, or anything) is >> going >> to aid in retarding sound from the bottom of the piano. The question is >> how >> much containment of sound are you hoping for. We've experimented with >> just >> about everything and for the extra money, the high grade acoustical >> baffle >> foam is well worth the extra cost. > > I agree with you, Tom.  I was responding to what Israel said about > using a foam mattress cut to size.  That will reduce the sound, but as > I said, the acoustic foam is denser and would do a better job. > > What I was talking about was after the acoustic foam was in place on > top and bottom.  I was wondering if a foam mattress might help *in > addition* to what was already there. It did make a difference, but not > significant enough.  Sorry if I worded it poorly. > > Having done my little experiment on that job, I will use acoustic foam > in the future if ever I need to reduce the volume. > > Someone else before me had put a sheet of fiberglass insulation in > there.  That doesn't work well at all, just in case anyone was > wondering. <g> > > JF > Years ago I had a very fussy customer with one of those tiny 4' 5or6" George Steck grands. He felt it was too loud for the room, it was a huge room with carpet, heavy brocade drapes, bookcases, plenty of "soft stuff" to absorb sound but he wanted it quiter still. I arrived one day to tune and he had had a custom cover made for it, padded with a quilting inside. The outer cover matched the drapery material and fit from where the top folded back all the way over the nose and hung a few inches past the rim. It was very quiet, after I removed it to tune it was still very quiet, I looked underneath and he had stuffed 2 foam bed pillows between the beams and sound board! Perhaps I should have said nearly dead, rather than quiet! <grin> </blockquote> <div> </div> <div> </div> <div>Mike</div></div> -- The way some people find fault, you'd think there was some kind of reward. Michael Magness Magness Piano Service 608-786-4404 <a href="http://www.IFixPianos.com">www.IFixPianos.com </a> email <a href="mailto:mike@ifixpianos.com">mike@ifixpianos.com</a>