A fine posting JD, and a good story about the Brinsmead to boot. Suffice to say, as your Bösendorfer example points out that tastes do vary greatly. Sometimes beyond our own domain of what seems reasonable. I know folks for example who adamantly believe there should be a distinct break between tenor and bass and are not at all pleased with the sound of a transition that is overly even. And as I think we agree it is in the end not for us to portend to decide over others likes and dislikes. Tho to be sure I can also shake my head in wonder from time to time :) Still... strikes me as a <<better>> road to walk to delight in the creative endeavour we take for the value that has in itself and leave it at that. Qualitative comparisons get so iffy (at best) so quickly in this world of ours. Hope ya all had a nice Easter btw ! Cheers RicB At 20:57 +0100 23/3/08, Richard Brekne wrote: >...Its probably a good idea to remember that by definition you are >not going to make any improvements per'se... only alterations. Well, with larger pianos it is certainly possible to change the character of the bass, and whether or not the change is an improvement is certainly a matter of taste and opinion, as you say. On the other hand there are scales that are simply misconceived and which, when the faults are pointed out to any discriminating hearer, no matter what their general preferences may be, will be recognised to be faulty. If by modifying the scale you can achieve less audible breaks, then that is clearly an improvement in anybody's book, and if you can stop a note barking by changing the design, so is that. Any scale that requires the steel to exceed the maximum safe tension is also to be redesigned. It would be difficult to find anyone to prefer the sound of the over-tight strings to the sound of strings working within safe limits, I can assure you. I quite agree that to impose one's personal preferences onto all scales no matter what the fundamental character of the piano is, is to court controversy. For example I personally detest the sound of a Bösendorfer and in particular the bass of a Bösendorfer but when I make strings for one of these beasts I follow the essence of the Bösendorfer design, because somebody who has chosen a Bösendorfer doesn't want it sounding like a Steinway or a Blüthner. There are faults in some of Bösendorfer's scales, as there are in most of Steinway's, but these can be corrected without changing the overall character of the tone, the balance, the staccato response etc. Since this thread began with a question about a George Steck, I'll tell you a story of a well-meaning but inexperienced string-maker early in his string-making career -- namely me. I had an order from the Blüthner workshops in London, all of whose strings I was by then making, for a set of strings for a Steck 5' grand (Aeolian Steck, I imagine). When I measured up those horrible stiff strings and calculated those awful tensions, I thought, let's make a set for this piano designed like the nice Blüthner 5' Style 4. Within a week I had a phone call to say that those strings for the Steck are just flapping away and making hardly any sound. Luckily I learned that lesson early, and since then I am most careful with any "baby grand" that comes my way to stick pretty closely to the type of scaling that the maker used. The longer the piano is, the more scope one has for changing the scale or changing the character of the bass, but still one needs to be careful ... ... I have recently bought a very nice Brinsmead 5'7" grand from about 1905. As soon as I'd got it I calculated the existing scale and wondered if I could get a little more colour from the bass, which is very strong in fundamental tone. Brinsmead's scales, incidentally, are very well designed. Note 25, the top bichord, was made on a No. 20 core; I decided to see what it would sound like with an 18, which would be more what you'd expect on other pianos. It was obvious as soon as I'd fitted the pair that this would not do at all -- the balance of the harmonics was quite wrong and the bass strung is such a way would have been quite out of character with the piano as a whole. This Brinsmead was designed to be very strong in fundamental and that's the way it has to stay. If I wanted it different, I'd need to fit a re-designed soundboard. JD
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