fortepianos

[Conrad Hoffsommer]

>
> At 11:27 PM 2/15/95 -0700, Steve Brady wrote:
>
> >        What kind of Dampp-Chaser setup do you have in this piano? Does
> >the piano have an enclosed bottom, or is the soundboard exposed? I'm
> >trying to visualize putting a humidity-control system in our Regier, but
> >the bottom is closed off, so I'm not clear on where it would go...
> >
> >Steve Brady, RPT
>
> ---------------------------
>
>         As soon as I sent that remark I knew that I should have qualified
> further. This Streicher copy is actually the only fortepiano I've ever seen
> with an open bottom, so installing a humidity system was easy. Margaret
> Hood claims that this is a copy of a specific Streicher which survives in a
> museum, (I can't remember which one) without legs. She must be right, but
> the Wolf's Streicher now in production has a bottom. I have also been told
> that the current Wolf Streicher is not really a precise copy of one
> particular instrument. The Lyon's and Reiger's I've seen also had bottoms.
>
>         I'm not really sure what purpose that bottom serves if not for some
> aid in stability, and have no idea how you might install a humidity system.
>  Sorry.
>
>
>                                                 Dennis Johnson
>
>
Steve, Dennis, et al.

Our FP here is a Zuckermann Stein copy w/closed bottom. It normally lives in
a professor's studio which has room humi/dehumi controlled by humidistat.

When is is relocated to a concert venue, I try to keep a tent (cheap tarp)
thrown over it and a small humi or dehumi set , not attached, under that.
I naturally have signs warning not to unplug/move the setup, but the
literacy rate is falling and I have to make frequent checks on the arrangement.

conrad

--
Conrad Hoffsommer                Ignorance doesn't kill you, but it will
Luther College                   make you sweat a lot.-Haitian proverb
hoffsoco@martin.luther.edu