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Fazioli shift set up

  • 1.  Fazioli shift set up

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 03-14-2013 10:13

    At last year's WestPac, during the all day Fazioli session, we were told that their standard for una corda set up included slightly beveling the left (bass) side of the hammers (three string unison sections), and aligning those hammers so that at full shift, the left string would not sound on a soft blow, but would on a hard blow. IOW, the bevel would keep the string from sounding on the soft blow, and on the hard blow you would get "a little extra."

    Intriguing idea, and I filed it for consideration but did not experiment. This past weekend I had an experience that leads me to question whether this is a good idea. 

    I had an emergency call to do some prep on a Steinway D (instrument unknown to me) for a concert featuring Rach 3 with Alexandre Gavrylyuk (fabulous pianist, BTW, quite cordial and easy to work with). He was complaining about unevenness of the una corda voicing, and I had on the order of three sessions with the piano totaling 4.5 hours, with tuning included, and he would prefer to have some practice time on the instrument during those hours as well. IOW, I had to hurry.

    The piano was not well prepped, though it was a reasonable instrument and powerful enough to do Rach with orchestra. It had not had una corda voicing, but also the hammers were not well aligned with the strings: at full shift, some missed the left string, some struck it full on, some struck it with the edge of the hammer (which was sharp and hadn't been beveled). I decided aligning was out of the question due to the time constraints, and that I would simply work with what I had.

    Bottom line, when I met him at the beginning of my third session, he was generally satisfied, but found that about six hammers had a strange sound, sticking out when played loud at full shift. Every one of those hammers turned out to be set up like Fazioli was recommending, not making the left string sound when played softly, but it did sound on a louder blow. The objectionable sound was a nasal quality, very familiar: the sound of a badly mated hammer. (My solution was to space those hammers about 0.5 - 1.0 mm so that they missed the left string, and that solved the problem).

    To add some "war story" details, we are in a somewhat rough time here in Albuquerque, with the Steinway dealer having gone under 3 years ago from the recession, no C&A Steinways available, and the orchestra having gone bankrupt. The current orchestra is trying to rise from the ashes of the old. So this instrument belongs to a patron and was borrowed for the occasion. I was called Friday evening at about 6:55 pm: can I possibly do some emergency voicing on a piano? Details are that the concert is tomorrow at 6 pm, there is a rehearsal tonight from 7 - 10, I could have access to the instrument from 7 - 9 while they rehearsed the rest of the concert. Saturday, it will be moved to the concert venue by 10 am, rehearsal 12 - 3, pre-concert lecture at 5.

    I strongly advised an alternate piano - the hall's house piano, the concert Yamaha in town. The pianist wanted to talk to me, so we had a chat. He was happy with the regulation, liked the sound of the non-shift sound, was only concerned with una corda evenness. He had tried the Yamaha and would prefer this instrument if u c could be made even. He would rather not take a chance on the house piano that he would have no access to until the day of the concert (the hall had another show going on). So my "good trouper - the show must go on" and "any sacrifice for the sake of art" characteristics kicked in, and all in all it was a good, worthwhile experience.


    -------------------------------------------
    Fred Sturm
    University of New Mexico
    fssturm@unm.edu
    http://fredsturm.net
    "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination." - Einstein
    -------------------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Fazioli shift set up

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 03-14-2013 11:20
    Greetings, Just how hard was he playing with the una corda depressed? Ed Foote RPT http://www.piano-tuners.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html


  • 3.  RE:Fazioli shift set up

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 03-14-2013 13:11
    He was playing quite hard. I know that we might presume to say that there is no need to play hard when you are using una corda, but in fact that is not the case. When playing softly, you still need to bring out notes, so most notes you are playing might be p and pp while another note needs to be more like FF so that it will project above the others.

    This was the case with the very first note he pointed out to me when I showed up to the piano: it was the most prominent note in the section, D5 in a movement in D, with consistent prominent placement in the melody (he played a short passage pointing it out). First I cut the corner and needled the full shift areas. OK at lower volumes, but not where and how he needed it. I troubleshot a bit (fast, under the gun) and it was obvious that most of the objectionable sound was from the left string, and that the corner of the hammer was aligned to it. The only solution that worked was re-aligning the hammer - subtly - so that it missed the string.

    Note that Alexandre Gavrylyuk is an absolutely top notch, international virtuoso. He is not picky for the sake of being picky (he let a lot of things slide that really bothered me, like lack of decent damper simultaneity with the pedal). For my final pass, he told me about notes he noticed while rehearsing. And I guess I'll add that playing una corda over a romantic orchestra is somewhat more color change than volume change: you still need to project, so you are likely to be playing harder with the pedal down than you would in a solo recital.

    The point here is that in a real life situation, with a top notch professional, this set up did not work and was objectionable. It might work in other circumstances, I don't know. If you set up the whole piano that way, and someone objected, you could simply adjust the shift stop screw and solve the problem. But maybe more to the point is that in any shift that leaves the left string (or stays right on the edge), there will be shift positions (between pedal at rest and fully depressed) where that edge (whether sharp or beveled, or at the edge of the bevel) will hit that left string, and it will cause an out of phase, unmated sound. This is true regardless of whether you "cut the corner" or not, simply because of the difference in how the felt of the body of the hammer will drive a string compared with how a corner will drive it. 

    I have personally gone to including the left string on all my instruments, for this reason and because of the damping issue. But I'd be happy to hear comments about this issue, as it seems to be a pretty important one in concert work.


    -------------------------------------------
    Fred Sturm
    University of New Mexico
    fssturm@unm.edu
    http://fredsturm.net
    "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination." - Einstein
    -------------------------------------------








  • 4.  RE: Fazioli shift set up

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 03-14-2013 22:39
    I find that with lacquered hammers cutting the edge is beneficial and partial shifting (using the una corda with various degrees of shift) is more dicey as it's very difficult to voice for uniform lacquer presence in every conceivable position at every depth. With lacquered hammers it's safer either on or off, one position. Expecting more than that is risky, probably unrealistic, though, of course, we all try. With non lacquered hammers (my preference if installing replacements--the amount of lacquer required in a D hammer is anathema to hammer performance, but that's a subject for another day) I prefer that the hammer is allowed to leave the left string entirely (as long as the hammer doesn't hit the adjacent string) and the fact that there is no lacquer gives the pianist (and the technician) much more leeway in using the una corda in various positions as there will be fewer surprises. The spacing of the hammer re the left string must be very precise but that goes for both situations. The dynamic level of force, as I mentioned before, should not be restricted by the use of the una corda pedal. It (the UC) can and should be used not just for playing softer (a misnomer--the "soft" pedal) but rather to create a variety of colors at various dynamic levels by virtue of the partial, glancing or sympathetic excitation of the left string combined with playing on parts of the hammers that are not part of the unshifted playing position. YMMV David Love www.davidlovepianos.com


  • 5.  RE:Fazioli shift set up

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 03-15-2013 10:36
    I have found that it is possible to have decent voicing for shift across the range of the shift movement, on lacquered Steinway hammers, by using a very controlled technique of surface voicing. Photos attached: first, the hammers must be marked (if there aren't visible string grooves, use carbon paper, so you know precisely where the hammer strikes in rest position. Shift position can be calculated from there).

    1 An angled stab into the crown, just to the left of each string mark - JUST to the edge, very important as otherwise a slight depression of the pedal may encounter hard lacquer sound.

    2 - 4 At full shift position, a series of three insertions, one completely perpendicular, and one each angled from front and back.

    This is the basic set up, which typically will take 20 - 30 minutes for the whole set of hammers. Needles are #10 or #12, spaced about 1 - 1.5 mm apart, 2 - 3 mm long. If more contrast is needed, tighter spacing and larger diameter of needles and more insertions. It is also possible to do an additional position on the hammer top, but I have found that these two positions I describe give an adequate range of tone for those who use shift in multiple positions - and there are a lot of pianists who do, especially Russian school.

    On the subject of shifting off the left string, there will always be the precise points where the edge of the hammer is striking the middle of the left string, and just to the right of the middle of that left string. There is a twangy sound associated with that, particularly when the hammer is played loudly - and it is the sound of bad mating. Yes, I am meticulous at leveling strings, because mating is absolutely gold standard basis for any voicing, but even so, there will be a position where that sound occurs, the note "leaps out" at you because of the additional timbral element. It's not something people talk about much, or maybe even notice much, and that's why I am bringing it up. 

    Take any well-prepped piano, experiment with how much paper/card to put between the shift rest felt at the bass end of the keyframe and the keyframe so that the hammers are all (depending how precisely you have spaced) just about or just striking that left string. Ie, mute the right strings, play the notes and hear if the left string is being struck, at light and then heavy blow. Put it where the sound is obvious when you play loudly, not so obvious when you play softly. Now check the sound of you voicing, with the keyframe secured in that position. What do you hear? Do you like it?

    -------------------------------------------
    Fred Sturm
    University of New Mexico
    fssturm@unm.edu
    http://fredsturm.net
    "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination." - Einstein
    -------------------------------------------








  • 6.  RE:Fazioli shift set up

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 03-15-2013 11:10
    Great lesson, Fred.  Very nice pics too!  This is a very touchy thing to do and can soooo easily be messed up by the inexperienced tech!

    -------------------------------------------
    Paul T. Williams RPT
    Piano Technician
    University of Nebraska
    Lincoln, NE 68588-0100
    pwilliams4@unl.edu
    -------------------------------------------








  • 7.  RE:Fazioli shift set up

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 03-15-2013 11:47
    A detail I didn't mention is that the angled insertion (for a standard, first set up) is with #12 needles, and the full shift position with #10. This helps with graduating the tonal change from one position to the other. The angle means that the shallowest insertion is right next to the string groove, and as you shift, you come to felt that has been needled deeper. But exactly what I do depends on what I feel, and what I hear after doing a few initial samples, so I will vary, sometimes using #10 for the angled insertion as well in certain parts of the scale, and also varying the spacing of the needles and number of insertions. I have three each of #10 and #12 tools with different spacing and length of needles, for different uses. I also have #8 and #9, but have found that I almost never use them.

    The #6 needles all jammed together in a slot in a hammershank, that the Steinway guys use, are like trying to do fine chisel work with an axe head, IMO. If you are careful and skilled enough you can get by with that, I guess, but I prefer more precision and control. BTW, in the situation I described, my first step was to go through the entire piano, all hammers, doing this standard procedure, plus cutting the corners of the hammers. The pianist tried it, and was immediately convinced that it would be possible to use this piano, telling me, "You are a really fine piano technician, making such a big difference so fast." So it is not just my imagination ;-)

    I've been doing this, and writing about it and teaching it in classes, for maybe 8 years now. Maybe in another 20 it'll start to catch on. It really is a very simply way to get some excellent results with a minimum expenditure of time. Bösendorfer does something quite similar. I don't think Fazioli does any shift voicing procedure per se, though.

    -------------------------------------------
    Fred Sturm
    University of New Mexico
    fssturm@unm.edu
    http://fredsturm.net
    "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination." - Einstein
    -------------------------------------------








  • 8.  RE: Fazioli shift set up

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 03-15-2013 12:24
    Marking the hammers certainly helps and those are good techniques and procedures. I agree that you can do it with surface voicing, sort of. But that's only as good as the dynamic range not compressing past the surface and that you catch all the lacquer hard spots with every minor change in the shift position. Since I think the una corda should be able to be played at all dynamic levels, it just makes it more difficult. Not impossible, of course, but more difficult and less reliable. Every time you needle the surface, especially if you need to go a bit deeper to get some buried crystal, you can easily change the mating and do. It's a back and forth task with mating changing the proximity of the lacquer beneath the surface and it ends up being a back and forth. Ultimately some compromise is made or we simply stop looking at a certain point and move on having done the best we can. That's part of the reason (there or other more structural reasons) that I opt out of lacquered hammers when I can, especially on D's. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com


  • 9.  RE:Fazioli shift set up

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 03-15-2013 13:12
    I'll address issues of lacquer voicing in a separate thread, and stick here to the sound produced during shift, when the corner of the hammer touches or just barely touches the left string. A couple more comments about that:

    The objectionable sound is less prominent when the hammers are voiced "mellow" than when they are bright. But concert instruments tend to have to be bright, so this becomes a real and unavoidable issue with concert instruments.

    The sound is more objectionable in the mid to high treble: precisely where it will be most noticed.

    Lacquer hammers make the sound more prominent (other things equal), but it is also present with unlacquered. I notice on pianos with Renner or Abel or Yamaha hammers that I have set up so the left string is included, but only just included (and I have "cut the edge" as I do as standard procedure on all hammers), when the shift pedal has been "jammed" quite a bit (heavy use) so that the shift goes a little farther (compression of the leather that bears on the adjustment screw), suddenly full shift has this nasty sound to it. I'm talking practice rooms here. When I investigate, I find the hammer corners are now touching the strings. This has happened on more than a few occasions, so now I space with more room for a fudge factor, and adjust the stop screw accordingly as well, so full shift is farther from the edge.

    -------------------------------------------
    Fred Sturm
    University of New Mexico
    fssturm@unm.edu
    http://fredsturm.net
    "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination." - Einstein
    -------------------------------------------








  • 10.  RE:Fazioli shift set up

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 03-15-2013 13:20
    Fred,

    Wouldn't it help to needle the corner as well as breaking the edge? Maybe your special crown voicing tool should have three rows instead of two. With what you've described (and I agree) this may be something to try. I'm glad you mentioned this, and I am experimenting because of it.

    Best,
    Jim

    -------------------------------------------
    James Busby
    Mt Pleasant UT
    801-422-3400
    -------------------------------------------








  • 11.  RE:Fazioli shift set up

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 03-15-2013 13:50
    Yes, I do needle right at the left edge of the hammer (I did that with the piano I was prepping for the concert last weekend, more than once, also cutting the edge with sandpaper more than once, before deciding the only way to get rid of the objectionable sound would be to shift the hammer so it missed the string altogether).

    My tools have one row of needles, not two. I do separate insertions for each string groove, or space between string grooves. The needles are inserted parallel to the grooves.

    I'll note that I use the same tools in the crowns of extra hard high treble hammers, whether lacquered or not, and often I will be inserting them at right angles to the string grooves, a few insertions 1 mm apart, up over the crown, as well as insertions from different angles parallel to the strings. This is to take down a very bright hammer, where a larger needle will just make a woodpecker hole, tear the felt badly, and won't make a positive difference to the tone. The smaller diameter needles penetrate much more easily (there is often a big difference between #10 and #12), and the tone change is subtle for each insertion, but quite noticeable after 5 - 6. Takes the ugly edge off without losing power and bite.

    -------------------------------------------
    Fred Sturm
    University of New Mexico
    fssturm@unm.edu
    http://fredsturm.net
    "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination." - Einstein
    -------------------------------------------








  • 12.  RE: Fazioli shift set up

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 03-14-2013 22:09
    Why would it matter? You should be able to play at all dynamic levels with the una corda shifted or not. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com


  • 13.  RE:Fazioli shift set up

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 03-14-2013 12:29
    Fred,

    Is this different than Steinway's "breaking the edge" of the hammer? Wally Brooks also did it, but did both sides. (Remember that at your seminar?) IOW, Is Fazioli's method different in how they break the edge, or just different in hammer alignment and amount of shift? Eric and Kent both showed a single swipe with the sanding paddle to break the edge.

    Jim

    -------------------------------------------
    James Busby
    Mt Pleasant UT
    801-422-3400
    -------------------------------------------








  • 14.  RE:Fazioli shift set up

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 03-14-2013 13:18
    I think the "edge breaking" or "beveling" is pretty similar for Fazioli and Steinway. There is some difference in that a lacquered hammer will have a corner that is quite a bit more brittle and hard, so I find that a heavily lacquered Steinway hammer may need 2-3 strokes, and curving around following the edge of the crown (not just at the very top).

    Cutting the other edge isn't going to affect this particular sound. Partly, it is the thin sound of the corner of the hammer striking the middle of the left string (you can isolate it by muting the other two strings), and partly it is the out of phase of that string with the other two, that are struck more forcefully, and are struck slightly ahead of the left string, causing the out of phase. It is really precisely the sound of a badly mated hammer.

    -------------------------------------------
    Fred Sturm
    University of New Mexico
    fssturm@unm.edu
    http://fredsturm.net
    "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination." - Einstein
    -------------------------------------------








  • 15.  RE:Fazioli shift set up

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 03-14-2013 15:03
    Fred,

    I have done the left side "beveling" ala Wally Brooks, but never the right side.  Is that some sort of effort to ease the hard crowns if lacquered heavily?  The head tech at Oberlin likes to totally envelope the crowns with laquer much to our amazement at a Steinway seminar there a few years ago.  I don't see this as a whole bunch more one would have to do in final voicing.

    Thoughts anyone?



    -------------------------------------------
    Paul T. Williams RPT
    Piano Technician
    University of Nebraska
    Lincoln, NE 68588-0100
    pwilliams4@unl.edu
    -------------------------------------------








  • 16.  RE: Fazioli shift set up

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 03-14-2013 22:09
    I assume you leveled the strings so that they were at least on one plane, level is better of course. If they are not and the hammers are mated in the unshifted position they will not be mated in the shifted position. Also check the pinning and how vertically the hammers are traveling. If they wobble side to side coming up then anything can happen. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com