promised reply (Susan)

[Susan Kline]

Comments interspersed; I hope it isn't too annoying.

At 09:34 PM 12/14/97 -0500, Stephen Birkett wrote:
>Here's one of the promised backlogged replies....

Worth waiting for, thanks. It gives "S&S" a whole new meaning! <g>

>> I feel like one of Ron's "lerts".
>>
>What's a lert?

Very modest joke on the old saying: "Always be alert!"


>Susan asked [and asked, and asked, and ...]:
>> Who made it?? Where is it?? What kind of terminations and counterbearings
>> does it have? Is the action fairly normal, or something that has disappeared
>> now? You've studied how it can sound like that? Are there others like it?
>> 
>Schiedmayer und Soehne in Stuttgart #4549, Dated 1856
>Wurrtemburgisches Landesmuseum, Stuttgart
>
>Straight strung, composite frame, 5 iron braces.
>Agraffes on all notes.
>
>Compass 82 notes: CC to a4
>
>c2 length 300 mm (short scale...note wire type).
>
>Great care taken in design (agraffes and other business at the front end)
>to make the piano stable tuning-wise...it would put you guys and gals out
>of a job for sure if all pianos were like this one. Virtually never needs
>tuning. 

I would be more than happy ("happy" wouldn't be the word for it!) to have a
great many such pianos in my "stable" and to tune them less often!

I think it might be very interesting to gather a collection of "front end
business" photos (bearings, v-bars, agraffes, counterbearings, multiple
counterbearings, etc.) from large grands from this era, through about 1920,
maybe. The only one I have direct contact with is the 9 foot 1901 Knabe I
tune, which is indeed very stable, and has a lot of good stuff at the front
end. Next time I'm over there I'll take some photos.

If I were a little better at computers, it would be fun to put such photos
on a web page.

Do you feel that a lower tension scale may also improve stability? What
would be an average tension on a treble wire, say in octave 5 or 6? 

>CC to D# separate bass bridge, covered wires. Remainder old soft wire,
>chosen when modern stuff had been available for some years...a practice
>this builder continued even a decade later. 

Do you feel that the soft wire might be one answer to the v-bar jangles and
lacquer and keytop-with-acetone high-partial sounds we have to put up with now?
Do you feel that the sound of this piano, which I picture as very rich and
mellow, even opulent, would still fill a large hall? Would it take a lot of
"attitude adjustment" before artists accepted it for concerts as well as
recordings? I could imagine really _marvelous_ recordings ... 

"Covered wires" -- wrapped with what metal? When you say covered wires, do
you mean that the wrap goes right through the bridge pins? 

>SB of WIDE grained fir rectagular to spine. Simple English action, redwood
>(?!) hammersticks, felt hammers leathered from E to top. 

REDWOOD? As in _sequoia_? Not even your basic red cedar? I thought sequoia
was too brittle for any use requiring flexing, but if they are INTACT from
1856, that might require a little reappraisal. Redwood is a American wood.
They chose redwood, _imported_ it, brought it to Stuttgart from California
in 1856? .... (??)

>Sound is pure and relaxed.  Not modern, but in between old and modern. Any
>modern pianist who plays it is blown away...remarks "why aren't modern
>pianos made like this one?" 
>
>It is the piano that could point to a whole genus of modern
>straight-strung instruments, if a modern builder were to realize the
>potential. 

It sounds like some FUN could be had, working with hybrids, or even
incorporating a few features in rebuilds (of pianos one owns oneself, of
course.)

Just from more curiosity, what do you do about the soft wire problem? Does
someone make it now? 

Thanks again, Stephen 


Susan Kline
P.O. Box 1651
Philomath, OR 97370
skline@proaxis.com

"I'm glad that there are at least some things somewhere that I don't have to
do today."
			-- Ashleigh Brilliant