As A Piano Ages

[frankiefrank]

Its sound become or warmer or cleaner? 

[Bob]

The felts can get broken in.

[keys60]

The sound more than likely will not get warmer. Felt hammers will absorb pollution in the home and with a lot of playing, will develop grooves with metallic residue and the felt will eventually compact, resulting in a brighter tone. New hammers have a nice "wooly" and softer surface depending on the how the manufacturer voiced them prior to shipping it out. Older hammers should be revoiced by softening the felt, filing down the grooves a bit and reshaping them.

[rachfan]

When I have my Baldwin Model L tuned, the tuner/technician also uses a small wire brush to brush out the grooves on the hammers to eliminate the metallic residue left from contact with the strings.  It also softens the tops of the hammers just a bit and to good effect, but is more conservative than voicing them. 

[ted]

I bought my Weinbach new in 1971. Perhaps because of the gradual nature of change I did not notice much deterioration. When new it had a wonderfully brilliant treble, which sadly diminished over the first decade of use, never to return. Aside from this the sound grew richer and warmer than that of most other pianos I played despite the action being slowly reduced to tatters by 2005, when I had the whole thing rebuilt. Of course all the dealers wanted me to buy a new piano, but nothing I tried gave me the same response so I chose to rebuild. Many pianos do not come right at all after rebuilding but Weinbachs are good, solid European pianos and, according to my tuner, mine was worth spending the money on.

Since 2005 it has seemed to me to improve in every way, and my tuner agrees. It's all very subjective and mine has had only one player - no doubt that has had something to do with it. 

[Bob]

If the environment is stable, the piano might become more stable.  I know brand new ones aren't great -- Broken in is preferred.

[keys60]

There are so many factors to voicing. Hammers can be cleaned reshaped and hardened as well as softened. With the case of your Weinbach, the hammers may have picked up a lot of surface crud as well as the strings aging, sometimes even corroding, it lost that brilliance it once had. I had to restring a Steinway S that was only 20 years old because the owners lived right by the ocean and the strings corroded and sounded muddy. We have to remember here, there is a difference btw warmth and muddy, brilliance and tinny or glassy. Stability is another issue dealing with tuning and strings developing their memory. Again, pianos environment will have most to say about how your strings are going to sound. Smoke, dust, moisture, temp., salt, etc. etc. play a major role in how your piano is going to sound and how long it will last.
But of course the dealers tried to sell you a new piano. That's their job and pianos don't exactly fly off the showroom floors. There are average 2 cars in every driveway and not even 2 pianos an the whole block.
Your technician is right. Having a good piano revoiced or even restrung (about 2k) is well worth the cost.

[timothy42b]

I bought my Weinbach new in 1971. Perhaps because of the gradual nature of change I did not notice much deterioration. When new it had a wonderfully brilliant treble, which sadly diminished over the first decade of use, never to return.

That was 39 years ago.  I'm wondering how much is the piano changing, and how much the ears?

Four decades of aging does diminish our high frequency hearing, even if we aren't subjecting it to loud noises and music along the way.