Keyboard Phenomena

Yep, this piano is in the right location. So nice that it’s taller than the Hamiltons… it should have some more potential, although presently is lacking in good bass sound on account of some bad original strings. Hoping to put some new bass strings on someday because these are deficient. Chalk it up to initial string quality. Much better custom aftermarket strings are available and twisting these likely isn’t going to do much to improve the low thuddy ones. Just to be sure beforehand, I’ve got to really inspect and scour the bridge for any structural separations. For now, my priority is to return soon to do a regulation on it. Also finding the source of the problem underlying why the green backchecks are getting eaten away, and remedying the slick catcher faux leather which may not be a high quality escaine. This Young Chang action is basically trying to be a copy of the better Yamaha actions, but may have slightly inferior materials. One can see in my picture there are a few hammers that could use spacing and alignment, perhaps traveling procedures as well. Also with voicing of course, my goal here is to slowly build a better cushion/spring in the felt of the shoulders which is pretty nonexistent at the moment, for whatever reason. It’s the dreaded “Royal George Felt” which is usually rock hard and so over washed with bleach and acids that it has ultra low lanolin content, the natural lubricant in wool that helps the entangled network of fibres slide through itself elastically. Truly resilient hammers have this property, and will thus more naturally produce the varied partial development we all seek. If lacking such resiliency, better characteristics need to be continually built and kept up by a tuner, if at all possible. Piano hammers tend to slowly revert to their prior state even if they have been through some voicing transformations before. I’d likely move towards the desired effect first chemically with a special alcoholic softener or the VS Profelt solution analogue sold by Supply88 (needing to buy more…), because those shoulders are already too rigid to accept any deep jabs, and then achieve it by introducing the needling techniques. Thankfully many of the Hamiltons now have wonderful Abel Encore Felt thanks to Greg, which has such a nicer native state. Other more supple alternatives would be the Wurzen felt or the soft, soft Bacon felt from Ronsen which I love. The so-called coefficient of restitution inside the felt must be correct for the differentiation of beautiful tone colors.