Re-Notch or No

[Horace Greeley]

Bill and List,

Being very generous, you wrote:

>Thanks to everyone for the input, but as we mull ovr these posts, no
>clear conlusions emerge. Horace emphasizes  "_in some instruments_ ".
>Frank Hanson said that sustain was traded for projection, which Horace
>also mentions, but that the gain was barely perceptable. Rob Loomis's
>weak sounding straight notcher has so many other variables, and the "1892
>[mate to one in Smithsonian] D " will have its bias notches carried
>forward with the old bridge, mainly for historical reasons.

"No clear conclusions" just about covers the issue.

>The more I reflect on Horace's decision (was your friend John wearing red
>or black lapels?),

(Normally Black, but I do prefer Blue.  OK, so, I'm a snob.)

 the more I'm interested in checking out the bias
>notching after the restringing and the file&voice which will follow it.
>It's a living room piano, but with a big human voice, and well-loved. If
>I have any complaint about this section, it's the capo bar which will
>also get cleaned up in this job. (Remember, though it's a '24 piano, the
>current belly is from the restoration center somtime in the 1960s.)
>Certainly, it's a fork in the road, but "the road less traveled" (yeah,
>so I come from Vermont...) is a rare experience, and one maybe worth
>having. There's also a 1940 D which the whole nine yards done on it by
>A&C of NYC ten years ago in the same room. The are entirely different
>pianos, but at least in that same room will be two Ds each having the
>different notching style.

Bill, I think that you have an incredible opportunity here.  To have two
instruments
in such close juxtaposition, (mostly, one hopes) under your sole care is to
die for, as
a technician.  That's when we have the absolute best chance of evaluating,
both
reductively and subjectively, what we do (over time).

"Well-loved" describes many  of the Bs and Ds I have serviced in private
homes over the years.  Many, if not most, of these pianos needed various
kinds of work.  Some got it, some did not.
Most would have been hard put to drive a small recital hall, but in their
"home" environment
provided much joy.

I, for one, will be greatly interested in what you find as this unfolds!

>On 5/2/97, rhohf@idcnet.com wrote:
><<One problem with sqaring up the notches on mid-1920s D's is that the
>aliquote  bar terminations are angled to be parallel with the angled
>notches. >>
>
>Very good point. I don't remember noticing, but seems to me that an
>aliquot bar to match bias notching would have been funny enough looking
>that I would remember seeing it. The set of duplexes from S&S is $112.00.
>

If you did not notice, they have probably been changed.  If so, it's too
bad.  The new style
(to my ear) substantively changes the sound.

Of course, one could always makes one's own...

>On 5/1/97, Horace Greeley <hgreeley@leland.Stanford.EDU> wrote:
><<	Was that the north end or the south end of the angus session?>>
>
>It has been a fertile discussion <g>. Thanks everyone for the input.

Touche!

Horace




Horace Greeley			hgreeley@leland.stanford.edu

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