Curious Design (More)

[Delwin D Fandrich]

Z! Reinhardt wrote:

> Hi Everybody!
>
> Del -- have you seen one of these pianos yet?
>
> Today a customer asked me to look at a Charles Walter Grand she is
> considering buying.  What I saw was an instrument with a tone like none
> other in its size class (it is *only* 6'3"...), you would swear that the
> bass belonged to a substantially larger piano.
>
> Two other technicians were also there, admiring the piano and getting a
> closer look.  We were particularly struck by the ribs/soundboard design.
> For starters, the ribs did not go into notches in the liner.  They were
> tapered, yes, but, they ended just short of the inner rim.  Furthermore,
> the soundboard had, for all practical purposes,what appeared to be a wide
> "bridge" on the underside under the bass section.  Perhaps that is to help
> focus the tone in towards the center of the board?  There were ribs on each
> side of but not touching this, rather than running through it.
>
> ...
>
> Through the years, I had been taught that a mark of a cheaper piano was
> that the ribs do not go into a notched liner.  Mr. Walter is an engineer
> who is known for his ambition to produce top-quality instruments.  Would
> this be an example of his expertise blowing a commonly-held belief *out of
> the water*?
>
> Very curious now --
>
> ZR!  RPT
> Ann Arbor  MI
> diskladame@provide.net

  ---------------------------------

It was part of my design to not run the ends of the ribs into notches in the inner rim. I
should point out that I'm not the only one to use this design. This is a holdover from the
days when only animal hide glue was available for gluing ribs to soundboards. (I know, I
know! Animal hide glue is the greatest glue ever invented by man and it not only holds
every part of the piano together forever and has never once been known to fail, but it
probably holds the moon in place as well. But still, that's why those notches are there
and that's why the ribs are stuck in there.) It was insurance against glue failure at the
ends of the ribs. It is a practice, however, that is detrimental to the acoustic function
of the soundboard, at least in the lower section of the scale. On the Walter, the top six
or seven ribs should be in notches, the rest should be floating free.

Yes, I do have to smile when I see this "feature" highlighted in one of the 12 page,
multi-color brochures.

Regards,

Del