Diagnosing A Piano w/ Nick Gravagne
Nick is a piano engineer with over 40 years of experience in the field. He has made significant contributions to the piano trade through his technical seminars across America and numerous articles he has authored.
During our session, Nick shared his unique approach to understanding pianos. According to him, there are three primary elements of a piano that demand attention: its body or 'box', its action (playability), and sound.
Nick offered clever and crucial insights like identifying issues related to tone quality by plucking strings and listening for their decay rate - a technique revealing each string's efficiency level. Simple but effective techniques like this help both in educating customers about their instrumentβs optimal sound quality as well as guiding our own work process during tuning jobs.
Another technique involves a clever way of estimating where a piano's hammer strikes a string. Imagine the hammer striking a string at a certain distance from the capo bar or agraffe. The key is to replicate this distance near the bridge, at the back of the string. Picture it as if you're placing the ideal strike point between the bridge pins and the piano's front.
Then comes the fascinating part: using a specialized wedge, somewhat resembling a guitar pick, the technician gently plucks the string at this designated point. If you hear the vibrant high notes you expect, it's a signal that untapped potential can be unlocked through voicing or hammer work.
Nick also highlighted how altering a piano's tone can be subjective and tricky given individual preferences and performance situationsβmaking voicing pianos complex yet fascinating!
Tune in to learn more clever techniques to diagnose pianos, treat them, and communicate flawlessly with the client about their pianoβs care.
Hereβs a little bit about our guest Nick Gravagne:
Nick combines a formal engineering background with over 40 years of hands-on experience in piano design, manufacturing, and rebuilding. He has authored numerous articles for the piano trade and has been a featured instructor at piano technical seminars all over the U.S. His business currently revolves around rebuilding and manufacturing custom soundboards for the piano rebuilding trade.
During our session, Nick shared his unique approach to understanding pianos. According to him, there are three primary elements of a piano that demand attention: its body or 'box', its action (playability), and sound.
Nick offered clever and crucial insights like identifying issues related to tone quality by plucking strings and listening for their decay rate - a technique revealing each string's efficiency level. Simple but effective techniques like this help both in educating customers about their instrumentβs optimal sound quality as well as guiding our own work process during tuning jobs.
Another technique involves a clever way of estimating where a piano's hammer strikes a string. Imagine the hammer striking a string at a certain distance from the capo bar or agraffe. The key is to replicate this distance near the bridge, at the back of the string. Picture it as if you're placing the ideal strike point between the bridge pins and the piano's front.
Then comes the fascinating part: using a specialized wedge, somewhat resembling a guitar pick, the technician gently plucks the string at this designated point. If you hear the vibrant high notes you expect, it's a signal that untapped potential can be unlocked through voicing or hammer work.
Nick also highlighted how altering a piano's tone can be subjective and tricky given individual preferences and performance situationsβmaking voicing pianos complex yet fascinating!
Tune in to learn more clever techniques to diagnose pianos, treat them, and communicate flawlessly with the client about their pianoβs care.
Hereβs a little bit about our guest Nick Gravagne:
Nick combines a formal engineering background with over 40 years of hands-on experience in piano design, manufacturing, and rebuilding. He has authored numerous articles for the piano trade and has been a featured instructor at piano technical seminars all over the U.S. His business currently revolves around rebuilding and manufacturing custom soundboards for the piano rebuilding trade.
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Piano Tech Radio Hour is brought to you by Piano Technicians Master. We provide cutting-edge piano technology instruction from piano industry masters without leaving your home, featuring monthly subscriptions, conventions, single live streaming, and recorded masterclasses. Learn advanced skills:
- How to tune pianos.
- How to repair pianos.
- How to rebuild pianos.
- How to tune concert pianos for the finest performers in the world.
Creators and Guests
Host
David Andersen
David Andersen, owner of David Andersen pianos in Los Angeles has been a professional musician, recording artist, and piano technician/consultant for nearly four decades. He has overseen the restoration and maintenance of hundreds of Steinway and Mason & Hamlin pianos during that time. Beginning in 1975 he apprenticed for two and a half years under Jack Cofer in Atlanta, Georgia; during the 1980s he studied at Steinway facilities both in New York and London.
Host
Eathan Janney
Eathan has 20 years of experience as a piano technician. He studied with Dave Miller, the staff piano technician for the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, New Jersey. Dave Carpenter, the inventor of the Verituner electronic tuning device, provided mentorship for Eathan in Chicago. Eathan also worked with Ken Eschete and Bill Schwarts, the staff piano technicians at Northwestern University in Chicago. In 2009, he founded Floating Piano Factory of New York, a company that allows piano technicians to move from Apprentice to Craftsman level while offering value pricing to clients as technicians progress toward mastery. In 2017 he founded Piano Technicians Masterclasses, an online project designed to offer cutting-edge instruction from piano industry masters to anyone on the globe with an internet connection.