<div>Your mileage may vary.</div> <div> </div> <div>In a blind test (not double-blind) I put Crescendo punchings on a concert D at my university.The pianists didn't know what I had done, or indeed that I had done anything -- but they didn't like it.</div> <div> </div> <div>I left the Crescendos on for several months. I finally removed them, because there was general dissatisfaction with the piano. With the original punchings restored, again without telling anyone that I had done anything, there were many compliments about how the touch improved. I thought that one of the functions of the key punchings was to cushion the blows to pianists' fingers, and that without sufficient cushioning, playing will be uncomfortable. I don't think Crescendo punchings provide sufficient cushioning; I suspect that they can make playing uncomfortable for the pianist.</div> <div> </div> <div>I don't use Crescendo punchings. Sorry.</div> <div> </div> <div> </div> <div>Kent Swafford</div> <div><br><br> </div> <div class="gmail_quote">On Feb 5, 2008 6:49 AM, Jon Page <<a href="mailto:jonpage@comcast.net">jonpage@comcast.net</a>> wrote:<br> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid"> <div> <blockquote type="cite"><font face="Arial" color="#000000">This non-"voicing" voicing is quite intriguing...</font></blockquote> <div><br></div> <div>In KC I did a test with a small group of techs. Using samples</div> <div>from Jurgen, we compared the original punching to Crescendo</div> <div>straight-sided and conical-cut punchings.</div> <div><br></div> <div>The consensus was that the straight cut produced a slightly better</div> <div>tone than the original and the conical cut punching was better than that.</div> <div>However when we turned the conical punching over (narrow side on bottom)</div> <div>the tone diminished.</div> <div><br></div> <div>So the orientation of the conical punching is critical.  Which was why on those</div> <div>Asian uprights, I could notice a difference playing chromatically. A simple fix :-)</div> <div>However, conical punchings are not suitable for all verticals either.</div> <div><br></div> <div>On a 3 y/o S&S S which needed the key travel to be increased I recommended</div> <div>the Crescendo punchings and made a test on C4.  The piano owner was surprised</div> <div>how much the tone focused when the new punching was installed, "That wavering</div> <div>went away", she said.  The action felt better too with a more positive landing to the key.</div> <div><br></div> <div>All in a day's work in super-hero-land.</div> <div><br>Regards,<br><br>Jon Page</div></div></blockquote></div><br>