Dying Notes At Soft Levels
By Thomas Henden
Finally, my Aeolian Weber 192X is restored, and it seems to work just fine except of a few things: All notes does repetition rapidly both on high and low suction, although the piano action gets problems on the softest levels. (On the workbench it does repetition much faster than in the piano, and I have also regulated it to the piano action.)
My piano techinican has changed the tuning pins and strings fixed the soundboard, and also regulated the action some, but not fully. (Complete disassembly and reassembly wasn't included in the job I paid for.) Since the pneumatic repetition is rapid on the workbench even at very soft levels, and the regulation to the piano action should be good, should I go for the extra job that the piano technican offers/advices me to, or may the explanation be too much pouch leakage? (See below)
(When hitting a key slowly and softly, the notes tend to play two times sometimes, and it didn't do that before the piano technician adjusted the action. When the action doesn't follow the pneumatic action, I can still see the valvetops working rapidly, and the pneumatics trying to play rapidly without the action responding properly at soft levels. Valve travel, and the smoothness of the pneumatic movement does not seem to be a problem)
What's seems even more trickier is the bleed size vs. the new pocuhes installed. The notes dies on soft playing, e.g. they hit, and does repetition OK, but won't last very long. This sometimes causes double notes, as mentioned above by very soft playing. The new pouches are more leakier than the old ones, and I didn't seal them with rubber cement, since I was unsure if the types (shoe repair gum) I find in the stores won't get hard, stiffening the pouches.
May I safely thin this shoe cement with acetone, and add a couple of layers on the pouches, or should I try it some some spare pouches, and wait some months to test it first? I have got one type that one may add into cracks into the rubber and also as glue, and it should dry for 16 or more hours in a humid atmosphere. I also have access to bicycle's tyre mending kit glue, that is a vulcanisationing glue, may this eventually be used? I tried this on a couple of spare pouches which still are soft and also completely airtight, but one month of testing time is maybe to little?
I have however sealed and preserved the pouches with mink oil, and pure silicone, and I have access to the pouches through the front cloth, for future resealing.
This seem not to be as effective as rubber sealing. Should I be satisfied with this, and instead make the bleeds smaller, and eventually how do I do that? The bleeds are small green celluloid plates. Could there be a leakage around these plates, which I could tighten with thin shellac?
Could I use tiny round coloured paper labels and prick a hole in them, or do I have to drill them out, and add new plates?
Sincerely Thomas Henden, Norway
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(Message sent Mon 2 Dec 1996, 18:07:48 GMT, from time zone GMT.) |
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