Re: Loud Duo-Art
By Bill Chapman
I can't bite my tongue on Duo-Art loudness. In response to Darrel's concern as well as others: No! -- earplugs aren't the solution, nor is altering the accordian settings, nor adding extra rugs and hangings in the music room, although each has its merit. I have been lucky enough to hear about 5 Duo-Arts that do not blast the dust off the tympania.
The interesting thing about these "soft" Duo-Arts is that the performance pops into focus as the roll plays. There is something quite believable about the sound coming from the piano. Nuances are there on certain pianos, and missing with the same roll on others. Pressure changes are in the correct loudness range to be percieved musically by the ear.
From my earlier music training I noted that the most realistic performances came from pianos that only played mezzo-forte when accordian 4 was open. Mezzo-forte of course is a relative term, but works as a frame or musical reference. With the emphasis which Duo-Art placed on classical music, and especially the dynamic detail in the rolls, there is internal evidence to suggest that Duo-Art knew what they were doing, and where their pianos were situated to be heard. The old Duo-Art ads and lore surrounding the pianos leads one to believe that they were very realistic sounding -- not just advertizing hype. After hearing a few realistic Duo-Arts here in the US, and Dennis Hall's pianos in England, I am convinced that Duo-Art produced results in some of their pianos that lived up to their ads.
One has to assume that, with as many experienced rebuilders as there are, many of these loud Dou-Arts are correctly rebuilt. In my own piano, I set the accordians exactly on factory settings, tested the expression box in several ways, and am certain that it is correct, substituting two different expression boxes. But the piano is not realistic. The hammers are of course "work-hardened" after many years, to borrow a phrase from metallurgy. IMHO these old hammers simply do not have the same operating characteristics as the originals. There are some people who believe that hammers are now voiced louder and more strident that they were in the early days. Well, if it is the hammers that are at fault, one could ask why the rebuilt Ampicos don't jar the hammer, anvil and stirrup? Or do they?
Remedial measures such as ear plugs should not be a part of the rebuilding manual, nor were probably furnished with new pianos. All the bases seem to be covered in rebuilding except the fine art of hammer voicing. Any experienced voicers have and opinion?
Bill Chapman
[ Ed. Note: The following was separated by several blank lines;
[ it may be an afterthought, or a PostScript, but it's a good
[ thought in any event. -- Robbie
P.S. If a pressure _change_ of, say, 2 inches occurs from 5 inches to 7 inches, it is quite different from a 2 inch shift from 7 inches to 9 inches. (Sorry I can't translate these differences to decibels).
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(Message sent Tue 27 Aug 1996, 21:01:28 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.) |
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