Hello Horace, I bought my copy from Pianotek. It is not in their catalog. The English translation is much better than the book on repairs, but there are some inevitable blunders. On the whole, an excellent book. The other book is far too elementary for my taste, but very useful for a beginner, though there is much I disagree with. I am glad you appear so active again, after your ordeal. Regards, Ted ________________________________ From: Horace Greeley <hgreeley at sonic.net> To: caut at ptg.org Sent: Wed, November 17, 2010 2:06:37 PM Subject: Re: [CAUT] Baldwin D bridge Hi, Ted, Do you have a source for an English version of any of Forss' books? I don't mind the German, but would rather exercise what remains of my language skills on other stuff. Thanks very much! Cheers! Horace At 08:46 AM 11/17/2010, you wrote: > Mick, > > What you describe (so well) is the design of the original Erard action. There >is a small drawing of it in the book on upright and grand regulating by >Carl-Johan Forss (page 355). I tuned many of these when working in London, UK, >many years ago. The French hung on to the basic design with later modifications. >I had a customer here with a 1920 Erard with one version, but am surprised that >yours is as late as 1943. Basically, I feel this to be mechanically superior to >both the key rockers as used by older Bechsteins and to our standard capstans. >There is little friction and the need to position the intersection of the >capstan and wippen heel on a straight line is eliminated. Also, the key and >action are linked, preventing any tendandtcy for the action to bounce off the >key, though this does not seem to be a problem in the modern action. >Nonetheless, I would like to see if this happens on high speed video, which >appears never to have been investigated, unless I have missed it. Most high >speed video concentrates on the hammershank and string. Obviously, the design is >impractical, and one can well imagine plenty of complaining in the early >factories. There were other very good details, long since abandoned, the hammers >had no tails, so were lighter,and they checked on a wire protruding through the >repetition lever (balancier) in front. This permitted the keys to be removed >without removing the stack. > The original Erard had brass flanges with adjustable center pin bushings. This >was achieved by slitting the flange and fitting a tightening screw, similarly to >American square pianos. My customer's piano had conventional wood flanges. One >idea it had was unfortunate though; the edges of the windows in the repetition >levers were covered with shiny white sheepskin, and the knuckles had worn them >right through. The old Erards I tuned were straight strung with oblong tuning >pins which I tuned with a T-hammer. Most had dampers underneath the strings, >held up by springs. If a spring broke, you were in deep trouble. I could have a >good deal more to say on these early instruments, but I hope you find this of >some interest. > > Ted Sambell > > > From: mick johnson <mickjohnsonrpt at gmail.com> > To: caut at ptg.org > Sent: Tue, November 16, 2010 11:08:41 PM > Subject: [CAUT] Baldwin D bridge > > Alan - I service one of those with the added weirdness of not having >traditional capstans. The backs of the keys and whippen bottoms are mortised and >pinned together with wooden abstract. It has a double-ended capstan in the >middle operating like a turnbuckle. The bottom of the abstract is forked and >snaps onto the center pin on the back of the key, so anytime you remove the >stack they all have to be pulled off and snapped back on. It was built in 1943. >I haven't figured out if the design had something to do with the war effort or >recreational drug use. Has anybody else seen this? > > Mick Johnson, R.P.T. > University of Nebraska, Kearney > Kearney, NE > 308-237-9264 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20101117/d5bb4258/attachment-0001.htm>
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