Re: Duo-Art Playing Too Loud
By Larry Fisher
A player piano that plays too loud is the number one complaint. If it's an old one or a new one, the complaint is still the same.
In your case, since it's been played so much in the past, I'd suspect the hammers are getting very hard and the strike surface is no doubt in need of reshaping. After reshaping the hammers, listen to them. If they display a bright tone, try running a small bead of alcohol and water down the strike line of all the hammers. I use a hypo bottle, and the mix is more alcohol than water. I move right along with the bottle as I'm applying the bead, so I end up with about a 1/4" wide "wet spot" on each hammer. If the water doesn't soak in willingly, use more alcohol.
Dry with a hair dryer and check your results. Reapply as needed to even out the tone through out the entire set, file as needed to increase brilliance or needle in the 2:00 and 10:00 positions of the hammer to increase brilliance. This mellows out the tone and makes the louder volumes more tolerable. Hard hammers, bright tones, make for a piercing tone that is not that nice to listen to over a period of time. It's great for large concert stages, and recording studios but in the home it's just too danged loud.
Lar
Larry Fisher RPT
specialist in players, retrofits, and other complicated stuff
phone 360-256-2999 or email larryf@pacifier.com
http://pacifier.com/~larryf/homepage.html (revised 5/96)
Beau Dahnker pianos work best under water |
(Message sent Sat 17 Aug 1996, 04:43:37 GMT, from time zone GMT-0800.) |
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