Hello Susan (and everybody else) Have you or anyone else studied Paul G. Mehlin's ideas? I've always thought that he had been a violin maker in Germany, but got into piano design & manufacturing when he came to the U.S. I've only seen one Mehlin 9 ft. concert grand, but it did, in fact, have the slanting soundboard and narrower treble bridge. It also had a hole in the sound board at end of the bass bridge. We could never figure out if it was supposed to be a "tone hole" like on a violin, or perhaps a drain since the board was slanted. Unfortunately, the piano was in pretty bad shape - it sounded terrible! Nobody had the guts to put out the money to rebuild it for fear that, because of the odd design, it would still sound terrible. I also wondered why Andre' replaced the ribs but not the board. I've rebuilt soundboards using the original ribs & board, but I thought if money permitted replacement, replace the whole thing. BTW, I always found it pretty easy to get the ribs off - compared to getting the board out without tearing it up. Danny Susan Kline wrote: > <<snip>>I was really interested awhile back when someone described pianos that > Nanette Stein was building way back when, with slanting soundboards, so that the > high treble bridges could be shorter and narrower. > <<snip>>I view a lot of this from a string-player's viewpoint. A violin has a > thinner top and a lighter bridge than a cello, and it's louder.
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