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(Right, I never really do any work or learning.)

I likewise, and I've forever had my pianos worked on toward that end, with partial success. My exposure to fortepiano has probably helped push me in that direction.

He did mention removing some of the weighting... it was such a long description, though, that you might have missed that part.

Excellent idea on the lower tension, lighter strings. It would take an expertlike Del to work out the physics of wire thickness, etc. Given that redesigning the bridge is probably out of the question, restringing with lighter guage string may be out of the question.

Thanks for your replies I will try to anwers your questions soon. Meanwhile, after more tests, I'm going to change the hammer-covering again, using only one layer of thin felt and one layer of leather, since the sound is less harsh and it is easier to play really soft. I would change this section of the text:

10 Lighter hammers, part 2
(...)

I used one layer of about 1.5 mm thick felt and one layer of about 1.5 mm thick Chamois leather, both about 6 cm long. The stripes of leather and felt were cut using a hand-operated paper cutting machine, very common in schools, with the material to be cut in between two layers of thin paper cardboard for a neat cut. The sound quality was less harsh than with three layers of Chamois leather. Each piece is glued seperatly at two points on both sides of the hammer core. The glue is strong, so only four little drops are needed. If anything gets ever detached it can be re-glued in no time. The tip of the hammer must always be left unglued not to ruin the voicing. The leather must have a little tension when glued, so it does not shift at the tip of the hammerhead. The ends of the leather, about 8 mm should be left unglued so the leather can be easily removed by pulling on these flaps when the leather has to be replaced. I applied a wooden clothespin after glueing for about 10 minutes. The leather piece on top is voiced with a tiny fraction of candle wax. Only the tip of the hammerhead is waxed when the leather is already glued on the hammer core. Either rub a white candle on each hammer tip and spread the wax with your fingers, or take an ironing iron on a low temperature, move the candle only once across the ironing iron. Only use a tiny fraction of candle wax, too much ruins the voicing and makes the piano sound like a harpsichord. Iron only the tips of the hammers. One streak of wax on the iron is enough for one section of hammers (there are four sections of hammers). Apply a kitchen paper towel between the iron to spread the wax or take some of it away again. The problem area is the middle section. Be most careful in the middle section. If you apply to much wax, you will simply have to replace the top leather. No wax makes the piano sound less articulate.

Recording is a difficult matter for me. I do not have a recording studio. There's only a rather cheap microphone and a cheap PC.

I can describe the sound in this way, by referring to a early 19th century fortepiano: In an early 19th century fotepiano, you have rather short, but thin iron strings in the treble and brass strings in the bass. When you hear a fortepiano for the first time, you are a bit put off by the nasal character of the treble. This is caused by several factors: The thin, short, very low-tension iron strings and the tiny leather hammers.

In a modern piano, the felt is compressed and voiced. The felt takes a very active, dynamic part in the sound, which is also rather loud. In an early historic piano, the hammer is rather passive. I would claim, the only factors that matter is the weight of the hammer, the surface of the hammer and the "cushioning" by felt (or leather) below the top layer. The sound is weaker, less impressive, less dominant and sometimes a bit "unrefined", compared to the modern piano. However, after getting used to this sound, the sound is often perceived as more interesing, more natural. It is an ideal sound for the Mozart's fantasies in d minor (KV 397) and in c minor (KV 475), which are difficult to make sense of on a modern piano.

Most impressive is the bass in a fortepiano. It is not dominant at all. Rather than church bells, it has a wiry quality to it, which is ideal for Mozart and the Romantics. The bass is very much transparent, melodies and single notes can be easily perceived.

What happens to a modern grand piano by changing to the hammers I have described is going very much in the direction of the early fortepiano. Even the bass of a short grand piano becomes quite attractive. The treble gets weaker, but this is no real disadvantage.

My piano, being a modern piano, is still louder than a fortepiano, but its sound takes many features of the fortepiano, which is amazing to me. At the same time the action is more reliable and precise. I practically used the same hammers for the entire piano, which is fast and cheap. The fact that the result is amazingly good is a pleasant surprise.

Here are some pictures.

( If the links here do not work, go temporarily to this page.
http://bildung.freepage.de/pinboard/piano/ )

Here is part of Mozart's Fantasia in d minor, KV 397. Sorry about the bad quality of the playing, I haven't played for two days and I am not yet used to this piano. I just wanted to give you some impression of the sound.

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I have uploaded my pictures and sound samples, but I think the site administrator has yet to allow the files to be published ...

Here is another server I have put my stuff on temporarily, in case my uploads here do not work:

http://bildung.freepage.de/pinboard/piano/

You may have to download the sound files to your desktop (or any other folder) by rightclicking the links.

Notice the "sobbing" quality of the sound, which normally is not found on a standard Yamaha grand and hardly on a good Steinway grand, but this is typical of early fortepianos. I was playing with only little dynamic changes. My neighbor is a nurse and at the moment doing her night shifts. I promised her to 'behave' so that she could sleep in the daytime...

Please, anything you can do to move something like this forward would be a good thing. I think that there really is a demand for a tamed grand piano for the home.

theJourney,

What you said! Fully agree!

Grands suitable for small room?

schwammerl.

If they make it through the system intact the new Weber (by Young Chang) should be at least one small step in this direction.

I’ve dropped the scale tensions (the Weber scales are no longer the same as the Young Chang scales) and they will have somewhat softer hammers. The new hammers for both the Weber and the Young Chang will be cold-pressed but the Weber hammers will not be compressed quite as much.

As well, there are a few other changes to the plates, soundboards and ribs and the rim assemblies that should make them a bit more balanced and improve their dynamic range some.

You might have read the newspaper article (in our local paper—there was a link posted here a few days ago) about pressing the rim for my own new piano. This will be another step in that direction. As planned there will be two sizes; a 2.0 m (6 7) and a 2.5 m (8 2 1/2). Both share a similar shape; quite narrow and slender. They will take up less actual floor space than pianos somewhat shorter. For example, the 2.5 m pianos will take up about the same amount of floor space as a typical 2.15 to 2.2 m piano.

As designed both will have very low scale tensions (for their sizes), very light soundboard systems and very light hammers and actions. They will use WN&G composite actions and keys that are specially designed to keep the weight down yet be stiff enough to avoid premature action saturation. It is my intent to also keep the key stroke a bit on the short side—more like 9.0 to 9.5 mm rather than the current “standard” of 10.0 to 11.0 mm. (With lighter hammers this will still make it possible to balance the action with a minimum of lead.)

ddf

Del, it speaks volumes about your stature in this industry that you were able to get YC to go for those scale changes - and to dump the front duplex, too. You previously posted re YC being favorably impressed by the demos, but I don't recall your mentioning cold pressed hammers. Did you include those on your demos?

I'm asking about these things because what you're doing with the Albert Webers constitutes, IMO, a bit of a sea change at YC.

Ah yes, the 6'7" piano. To my eyes that's where grands begin to have a graceful appearance. The lighter 'board may pay dividends, too. There have been a few posts re people preferring the CW 175 over the 190.

The cold-pressed hammers have not shown up in any production pianos as yet. They, like most of the other design changes, should be phased in during the next year but I don't know the schedule.

With these new hammers I'm trying to eliminate the need for most voicing at the factory. I want the pianos to achieve their design voice without the need for a lot of needling or sanding or chemical hardening; especially the latter. Still, I want to give the technician a hammer that can be worked with to take that voice up or down (within limits) fairly easily to suit a particular customer’s musical taste.

Early sample hammers have been on some of the demo pianos I've heard at the factory but there is still some work to do on felt selection and dimensioning. I've not wanted to say anything about these—or the other changes that will be coming along—until the company made their own announcements. As they have now done this I am somewhat freer to discuss the changes that are being made.

As the 2.0 and 2.5 m pianos are my own project I can say anything I wish. Or not—there are some aspects of the design I’m not yet willing to divulge. Before deciding on the 2.0 m length for the shorter of the two pianos I made several mock-ups to scale but wasn’t really happy with how they looked. I’m after a modern version of the mid-19th century pianoforte and this was the shortest size that pleased my eye. It’s not that I don’t like shorter pianos—I have a cute little 160 cm (5' 3") design that I’d like to see built someday!—but not for this project. Besides the 2.0 m piano is the shortest one I thought I could sell at a price that would compensate me for all the money and work I’m putting into the project. (How’s that for exhaustive market research!)

ddf

There should be a market for shallow key dip/lighter touch pianos. I'm looking out for a mid 1800's upright to play Chopin on myself. It's another world of experience to play on the appropriate instrument.