<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html>   Bill Ballard wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE>At 12:25 AM +0200 6/2/03, Richard Brekne wrote: >Thump on your pianos, and trust in what you have come to understand what that >tells you. Speak your own language to yourself... all this to be sure. But of >course.... be open to what the numbers say as well. Both dieties have their >validity,,,, and their failings Ron and David were actually talking about two different things. David's thumps report back to him things to be repaired, negatives to be brought positive. Ron was talking about the assumption of the board's condition (whatever it may be at the time of the cryo-experiment) was taken as static, and that the only changes in the system would be the addition of fresh material to it (ie., a restringing).</blockquote> I think Ron said exactly the following <blockquote>"What the photo showed, and what I was talking about was the assumption that you could grade the final tone quality of a piano by thumping on an un-strung board and checking it's pitch. Again, you can tell if the thing is falling apart by the rattles and clanks produced, which should be pretty obvious anyway, but the pitch of the thump is utterly non-informative."</blockquote> Which seems quite independent of this cryogenics process, along with his other comments on the matter. And David said   <blockquote>""....I can definitely pick up a lot of infoabout the condition of the board from listening:  loose ribs, loose edges,lack of resonance (i.e. crown and bearing), the general "voice" of theboard/piano."</blockquote> Which last two points seem to me to go beyond  "things to be repaired" , and both standpoints seem very well in keeping with positions both have taken before. Tho by all means, clarification by each may show that these two are in agreement about the general validity of  thumping the board. But I rather doubt it.   <blockquote TYPE=CITE>I definitely think we should stay tuned to this guy, if not just for the boiler technique (wasn't that he basis for Kimball's Mezzo-Thermoneal Stabilizer). If worse comes to worse, he can always lame it on the Aeolian factory.</blockquote> Grin... like I said... I rather enjoy holding such doors ever so slightly open. And I certainly have myself very much open indeed to the perspectives of both the quoted individuals above.. <blockquote TYPE=CITE>  As for David's thumping, thump on, David. The white noise of activated strings would seem to give you a quick snapshot of the board's resonance! Bill Ballard RPT NH Chapter, P.T.G. <a href="https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives"></a> </blockquote> -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway <A HREF="mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no">mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no</A> <A HREF="http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html">http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html</A> <A HREF="http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html">http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html</A>  </html>