Capo bars

[C. E. Hood]

Del, I think Capo Tasto, or head of the fingerboard, is the key here.  You guitar players on the list will know what that 'capo' is - a 'cheater' which lets us play in other keys but use the easy chords, in other words to just raise the pitch of the guitar a half step or whatever.  And so, a bar which bears on the strings at the near end.  This began very early in the devel of the piano, because without some downbearing on the strings the increasingly heave hammers tended to push the strings up off the nut a bit, or a lot, losing tone.  The upside down layout found in the original Silbermann fpos and also the down-striking actions was meant to do this - give a clean tone against the bang of the hammer.  Simply increasing the downbearing angle of the string to the tuning pin has the disadvantage of wearing grooves in the wood nut of the early fpos.  (Maybe the grooves in the current capo bars is due to too much angle of the string - how much is really necessary for a clean tone?)  I have at my elbow an 1860 Viennese grand which has had a capo bar added in the treble for obviously this purpose.  There were experiments much earlier.
     By the way if anybody would like to make me an offer on this really nice 7 ft grand, let me know.  A fuller description and photos on my website, www.fortepianos.pair.com.
     Best, Margaret Hood




-----Original Message-----
From: Delwin D Fandrich <fandrich@pianobuilders.com>
To: College and University Technicians <caut@ptg.org>
Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2004 08:25:13 -0800
Subject: RE: Capo bars

According to Giraffes, Black Dragons, and Other Pianos by Edwin M. Good
(Second Edition, 2001. Published by the Stanford University Press, ), capo
d' astro is essentially a meaningless term (at least as applied to the
piano) meaning "cap of the star." In other words it was a marketing term.
Capo tastro is Italian for "cap of the key" which at least has some
relationship to a component of the piano. Probably a more meaningful term
would be "capotasto," also from Italian, mean
d of the fingerboard."
(According to the Merriam-Webster 11th Collegiate Dictionary.)

  -----Original Message-----
  From: caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org]On Behalf Of
madelyn mrykalo
  Sent: January 31, 2004 5:47 PM
  To: College and University Technicians
  Subject: RE: Capo bars


  Is there a difference between capo tastro and capo d'astro?

  Delwin D Fandrich <fandrich@pianobuilders.com> wrote:
    The capo tastro bar and the V-bar are two different things even if they
are most often part of the same casting. The capo-tastro bar is formed in
the bottom part of the mold, the V-bar in the top.

    Del


    _______________________________________________
    caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives


  Vince Mrykalo
  University of Utah


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