How to boost a piano's bass, treble and clarity?

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Withindale
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How to boost a piano's bass, treble and clarity?

Post by Withindale »

A few months ago I saw a YouTube video of Stephen Hough saying Townshend piano isolators made a huge difference to the sound of his piano, a Steinway. Those isolators are rather obtrusive and expensive for domestic use, but you can achieve a similar effect with little or nothing to see and for next to nothing.

My 1905 Ibach grand did not sound quite as good as my 1927 Schiedmayer and Sohne upright. It came to life when I inserted some lollipop sticks between the top of the legs and the underside of the frame. Of course by comparison the Schiedmayer then sounded muddy and dull ...

Here is my post from the Pianoworld forum in case you would like to have a go.
Withindale wrote:
Bill McKaig,RPT wrote:A number of years ago I was in a voicing class with Wally Brooks when this subject came up. He had a pianist play the piano and he walked over the the tail of the piano and picked it up. There was a noticeable change in the sound. There was nothing subtle about it. He lifted it several times so that there was no doubt. I won't argue if it sounded better or worse, but it did change the sound.
Last week I heard one of Piano Buyer's Iconic brands has applied acoustic isolation to some of its pianos. Then Bill McKaig posted the story quoted above.

Those comments showed Stephen Hough's immediate reaction "big change, no a huge change" as soon as isolators were in place under the legs of his Steinway was genuine. As real as the change of sound I heard in my piano when I put balance rail punchings on top of the legs to separate them from the (about 80% air gap isolation).

You may have noticed I have since posted the ways I isolated my grand and upright in case you would like to have a go yourself.

As a note it may be useful to point out one or two similarities and differences between the isolators and the method of isolation I used. Max Townshend wanted to absorb all the vibrational energy coming down the legs to prevent it annoying the neighbours. He did this by placing his isolators under the castors. All credit to him. He had not realised he was also absorbing reflections back into the frame which affected the sound of the piano.

After seeing Stephen Hough's reaction, I looked for an unobtrusive way to prevent dissipation of energy down the legs as well as the muddying of the sound. An air gap between the piano and each leg was worth a try.

Bill McKaig's comment, "There was nothing subtle about it", shows the effect of the reflections starts with the attack. There is a round trip of about a millisecond for an impulse from the hammer flange to travel through wood to a castor and back again into the rim and the soundboard. This lag must put the reflections out of step with the original vibrations. Muddiness and lack of clarity result.

That's why, after hearing a recital in London, Mark Schwarzentruber said he wished Igor Levit had had isolators on his Steinway.
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