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Piano Bastringue: piano volontairement désaccordé. Sur un piano, la majorité des notes sont produites par plusieurs cordes vibrant en sympathie. Il suffit qu'une de ces cordes produisent une fréquence différente, même légèrement, pour que la sonorité devienne désagréable. Toutefois, le piano bastringue est devenu grâce à la musique de Western le héros sonore de nombreuses séquences d'anthologie. Le compositeur Claude Bolling illustre parfaitement son usage dans la musique du film Borsalino.
http://pianoweb.free.fr/defini(...).html
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What gives some pianos a Honky Tonk sound?
There is a complex answer to this seemingly simple question. First, is this really a desirable sound? When you learn what it can do to a piano you may rethink your answer! I am an experienced piano technician who started tuning in the mid-1970s, and have run into the need to both prevent and create the sound. Here are variances on how it is achieved and the problems that go along with it.
The first problem, to me (it's a matter of taste), is WHY? Why would anybody want the instrument to sound like anything other than, say, a PIANO? I keep my instruments in good tune, and all of my recordings are done on conventionally tuned pianos with no anomalies. Again, that's my preference. This sound started sometime in the mid to late 1940's when certain artists were "rediscovering" ragtime music. They also rediscovered the pianos the music had been played on, as uprights were not regularly manufactured past the 1920s, and many had not been regularly maintained since the ragtime era. During that time there was a definitively larger ratio of pianos to technicians than exists now, so good piano care on a consistent basis was hard to come by. 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 origin of that very term has been obfuscated over the years, but educated speculation by myself and my peers would suggest that the application of this term to a drinking establishment where such music was played more likely came from the musical term than vice-versa, and that the musical term likely emanated from the sound of the piano (which really does not resemble geese in flight!). Therefore, the application to a drinking establishment would, in a literal translation, mean drinking establishment where one can hear an out-of-tune piano.
How to achieve the sound needs to start with how not to. 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. The older the piano, the more true this is. So how do you harden the hammer? Realize that this is permanent before proceeding. Make a mixture of one part lacquer to five parts lacquer thinner. Remove the piano action and place it on newspaper, leaning forward a bit so there will be no dripping to the action's moving parts. Paint on a coat along the fronts of the hammers only, and allow 12 hours to dry. Then a second, then a third. Your piano will be out of commission for two to three days, but the resulting sound will be both louder and brighter. The coats in the lower register where the single and double strings are should be a little lighter to help avoid breakage from the percussive hits. This should be redone about every five years, depending on how often it is played.(...)
http://www.perfessorbill.com/h(...)9.htm
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C'est bien décrit : vieux piano pas trop petit, marteaux durcis, et unissons désaccordés (ou le système avec des languettes qui pendent devant les marteaux a la place de la sourdine, avec un oeillet installé devant chaque marteau)
Pour accorder c'est un accord "normal" (plutôt compact, pas étiré) qui est déréglé assez régulièrement, c'est assez amusant a faire une fois qu'on s'est habitué a accorder avec un son criard ! j'en ai fait qq uns dans des studios d'enregistrement mais juste l'accord pas la préparation des pianos si on regarde sur le net les joueurs de boogie de rue ils emploient de vieux pianos type piano Anglais, même avec des mécaniques a bayonette, ça donne tout a fait le son attendu, en revanche il y en a un sur un Samick pourtant assez grand, et la il n'y a pas le son escompté)
http://www.pianomajeur.net/for(...)82ee0