query+

[pianoman]

Does this mean all M&H's before Gertz were screwstringers?  Since neither
man were"pianomen" they were a composer and reed organ builders, does
anyone know who designed their first pianos?
James Grebe
R.P.T. from St. Louis
pianoman@inlink.com
"Take me through the darkness to the break of the day"

----------
> From: Tom Cole <tcole@cruzio.com>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Re: query
> Date: Sunday, October 19, 1997 8:52 PM
> 
> pianoman wrote:
> > 
> > Since we are on the current thread of screwstringers, does anyone know
who
> > invented or patented the system?  Since M&H started piano making in
around
> > 1883 were their first pianos screwstringers also?  If not, has anyone
seen
> > a pre-1895 M&H grand that wasn't a screwstringer?  What about the
uprights,
> > did they use screwstringing also or the norm?  I have only tuned 1
> > screwstringer (grand) in my life, many years ago, and the one I tuned
was
> > not a memorable or impressive experience.  I think M&H expertise before
> > Gertz was just not there but lay in their reed organs.
> > James Grebe
> > R.P.T. from St. Louis
> > pianoman@inlink.com
> > "Take me through the darkness to the break of the day"
> > .-
> 
> James,
> 
> The few sources I have don't give much information about the screw
> stringer mechanism. They mostly discuss Richard W. Gertz and his
> development of new scale designs and the tension resonator for Mason &
> Hamlin with only a passing mention of the screw stringer idea harking
> "back to Taskin's similar invention, previously imitated by Pleyel,
> Brinsmead and others...". Presumably, the idea was abandoned early on
> and therefore not much is mentioned on the subject. Taskin was a French
> harpsichord maker so the invention must go back 100 plus years before
> Gertz.
> 
> I have one reference listing the first Mason & Hamlin uprights being
> built in 1881, grands shortly thereafter.
> 
> I had a friend who owned a M & H screw stringer upright. I don't recall
> the year it was made.
> -- 
> Thomas A. Cole RPT
> Santa Cruz, CA
>