LeRoy Bowman

Ever wondered about that loud bright slightly off sound that shows itself in some honkytonk piano pieces? Here is an excellent article written by a piano technician.

The sound started up in the late 40s when artists were rediscovering ragtime, apparently they were also rediscovering the original neglected pianos.

Anyhow, somebody thought this might be a cool sound, and by the mid-1950’s, many record companies were producing albums played on pianos made to sound “honky-tonk.”

The author goes on to describe various acts of malice that can be carried out on a piano to give it the right “wrong” sound involving thumbtacks in the hammers, or multiple coats of laquer. The former is definitely not recommended.

There are three common techniques. One is to make the piano hammers harder. I have seen countless tragedies where somebody has inserted thumbtacks into the tips of the poor defenseless hammers. Since a hammer is essentially a piece of felt bent over wood at a tension of over 60 psi, the tack will likely split the felt in a short time, leaving only the wood exposed. Then, either the wood or the still-inserted tack will break the strings due to the hardness.

Use of a mandolin rail is a non-permanent method described in some detail as is a different than normal tuning.

This (alternative tuning) was most commonly used by artists such as Billy Rowland and Dick Hyman (both as “Knuckles” O’Toole), Winifred Atwell and Del Wood.

It should be stated that the author is not a fan of any of the above methods and likes his pianos normal.