Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Partial strength - hammer voicing or soundboard ?

It does not relate, in my opinion, this is something different than "sloopiness" we deal with.
In the end even after years , I hardly find "beating" unisons. The idea is elsewhere, we are not in boogie woogie prep !

The idea I think is to master the way the unison will evolve, since the start, ; they are slightly "pushed" in a direction while keeping some resilience an attraction to self center.

Sure balanced shapesiennese, smiley) are more long term living

A DOA is very poorly self centered, in fact it only have an envy, to settle, if not "pushed" originally in a determined direction I think it can adopt any kind of stable posture.

Probably not very long lasting because so much energy is use at the start, there is not enough left to "drive (maintain) coupling later in the sustain. (hence more false strings an noises.)

That process is well noticed when you tune old pianos with weak blocks. You just need to hold the wire with the tuning pin and have both landing in the stable acoustical spot, (nice energy flow) and you have a good stability without plenty of maneuvers

Isaac, have you sent that film Piano Mania, with the Steinway tech Stefan Knupfer? I think of what he was doing with Alfred Brendel trying to get different qualities of tone with the unisons to suggest different instruments... All from the same piano.

No, it probably wasn't, but even if it was: pianos pre-1900 have a broader dimensional tonal quality because of the stringing and construction--composers most likely would have been aiming for a DOA (i.e., their period-piano DOAs and our modern-piano Colour unisons are equivalent in terms of the functionality and overall tone of the tuning).

Demential?

Tonal dimensionality, in increasing order of: sine tone, multiple sine tones at different timings, a piano tone, upright piano, string quartet, full symphony orchestra with chorus [and anvil].

I think that is presuming a great deal. In what way do you consider 19th century pianos broader? Having played a number of grands from that period I consider them to be a bit more delicate, but sweeter. Certainly very different from a modern grand.

Ultimately, none of these written descriptions of tone are universal enough to have much meaning. No matter how much you write, I do not think that you can describe sound to a person who has never been able to hear anything.

That's preposterous: deaf people still tactilely feel music!

In fact, I regularly excises my tactile tuning skills separately: I put in really massive and professionally moulded earplugs to aurally block-out nearly all the sounds. What is left over is primarily bone vibration [mostly in the head/jaw/teeth], but other areas of the body as well (e.g., the skin) that are able to sense vibrations and assist in constructing a overall sonic image in the brain. Honing these skills means a technician can successfully tune in a very noisy environment--when there is no other option.

Technicians that study with me, have learned to tune through almost anything. I have long been a proponent of tandem tunings pedagogically. When two tuners have to tune the same piano, at the same time, doing multiple passes, relying only on aural skills doesn't work very well.

BTW, ever wonder why your voice never sounds the same on a recording as you experience it everyday? It's mainly the tactile difference in bone vibrations. These sounds are not vibrated as much with the recording as when the sound originates from within your body.

Let me know when you have taught someone who is completely deaf to tune a piano by bone conduction and without electronics.

You still as extremist as usual !!

But I agree that it is useful to get the feeling of the tone without a too large immersion, hence with other senses, "whole body" vs ears only.

Then all depend of what you want to listen too, I generally o not shut up the radio to tune in the shop, then I only tune "bloom" and expand it from unisons to other intervals.
Having a precise listening of the top of the spectra is not really possible easily in noise.

The radio, or music, is creating a masking effect, a little as earplugs but less enclosed, so you have less difficulties to deal with the power of the tone an the coupling part of tuning.

Before I learned to master the tone parts, it happened often I filtered mentally the attack, and finished with it being too present and too aggressive.

That way of listening, which must be common until the tuner realize he can work more musically, is very damageable an tiring for the ears.

Tuning with the whole piano resonating put you directly in the iH of non impacted strings which must be lower than when notes are played normally. Then you have the benefit of "static strings" resonance, the stretch is still moderate, or possibly "hidden" because the coupling is strong.

Many pianists know you can interfere a bit with the tone projection and color. (if not when you show them it is an eye opener !)

Some specifically want not any "phasing" audible , jazz pianists particularly, as they emphases much on the attack and tone articulation.

But no one want that "scissors cut" effect that happens when the tone is not oriented during attack.

The attack itself, despite being "noise" , can be regulated by the tuner, hopefully this is not really done only by listening to that harshness , and , may be strangely, you can regulate the attack by coupling the very top of the spectra.

Apparently so. This morning I went to my boulangerie to enjoy a good morning croissant and espresso drink. The total was $6.77; I gave the cashier two pennies, two twos, and a twenty. She gave me a look; I said, 'just type it into your computer machine and let's see what happens.' After it told her to give me back a quarter, a five, and a ten, she exclaimed: 'wow, that is some extreme math you got going on there.'

Extreme?!? Honestly, I think I'm the normal one. Why would anyone do it another way? It makes more sense to have fewer cents clinking around in your pocket all day long.

I just believe you add a bit more salt, so we are sure that the taste is "salted" . Does not give a clue about the smell, however

Be glad you do not live in Canada. Our smallest bill is the $5. We have dollar and two dollar coins. We all walk around with Robin Hood type jangling leather bags hanging from our belts.

But we have eliminated the penny! (Somebody had to do something!)

I prefer to have some with me so I can be gentle to some people more in need of those than me...

Sure if I give them those sort of strange coins they will give me an evil eye !

I think the centime is in the visor today...

No, not, you are absolutely abnormal, you cannot buy croissants with the money you cite, only with French €uro (cocorico Vive la France, winner of the tour de France de football !)

Back to the subject : the most responsible for me is first the wire, then the soundboard and then the hammer And shank that work with what they found.

Only with wound strings the quality of wounding matters a little more than the steel. But steel mechanics prevails, more than spectra may be.

Regards