Caster Cups (OK, so it's a bit long...)

[Delwin D Fandrich]

Jim, et al,

The part of the post that I was reacting to was "The comment was made that  putting a
grand piano on caster cups would improve the tone and volume of a piano and make a 5'
grand sound like a 6' grand."

I keep hearing how this one new technique or that one little trick is going to make "a 5'
grand" sound like "a 6' grand." For some years now I have been studying and analyzing
piano design and construction technology in an attempt to understand how pianos work and
how to enhance the performance of pianos. For the past five years or so much of my
business has involved the redesign and refinement of those designs to improve the
performance over the original. And we do get improvements in that performance, but it is
not all that easy to do. We have to do things like strategically reinforce rims and belly
rails, we have to redesign soundboards and rib systems. We have to build new bridges to
fit new stringing scales. We sometimes have to modify plates. And we do get improvements.
But, if I've learned nothing else along the way, I have at least learned that it takes a
lot more than placing a 5' grand piano on castor cups to make it sound like a 6' grand
piano.

Yes, there MAY be some alteration in sound if a piano on one surface is placed on another
type of surface. These alterations in sound may not always be for the better. And, usually
what alterations there are will be subtle, if indeed they are noticeable at all. Moving a
piano from a hardwood surface to a carpeted surface will make a difference. Moving a piano
from a hardwood surface to a concrete surface may change sound field created by the piano.
Moving a piano from one location to another in a given room will alter the sound field.
But placing castor cups -- whether they be hard maple, brass, glass, plastic or solid
bloody gold! -- under the castors of a 5' piano sitting on any of these surfaces will not
make it sound like 6' piano.

Whenever I hear claims like this -- and yes, I've also been in classes where this comment
has been made -- I'm reminded some of the dozens of voicing classes I've attended during
which the voicing guru makes some tiny alteration to a hammer, carefully explains to the
audience what they are expected to hear, slides the action in and asks, "do you hear
that?" Most everybody in the audience nods in agreement. Until questioned privately, of
course. Then they are not so sure. And, if asked to pick out the altered hammer, find it
impossible to tell any difference at all.

Claims like this also abound in the audio reproduction business and lots of folks have
gotten very rich selling super cables, connectors, spikes, and who knows what kinds of
snake oil to people with more money than common sense. Now some of these products may
actually make some slight and perhaps audible change in the overall performance of a good
system. (Few, if any, of them stand up to blind A/B testing.) But the way some folks carry
on you'd think that these speaker cables -- or whatever -- were the most important part of
the entire system. I recently encountered a person who had spent just under $4,000 for a
set of God only knows what kind of speaker cables. He had also spent just under $3,000 for
a set of 8 gold plated titanium -- Or something like that. After the last two zeros, I
lose interest -- spikes for those well-connected speakers to sit on. I guess if you have
the money to dispose of on stuff like this, ok. Just please don't try to convince me that
it has made some dramatic "improvement" in what was already a good system. It's snake oil.
Period.

Now, having said all that, I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce our new line of
piano accessories. It's a rather limited line so far, but we'll be adding to it as we go
along. Our research and development division is actively working on new products all the
time. To start with, we are offering our solid gold plated titanium castor cups, each with
a hard maple insert to equalize the speed of sound and better distribute the leg energy
throughout the cup. A true bargain at only $4,500 for the set. We are also offering our
new gold plated Hi-Speed Steel lid hinges (only $2,400 if ordered before February 30,
1999) that more efficiently couples sound energy to the often ignored front lid section,
thereby increasing the tone radiating area of the lid by at least 20%. Combined with our
new silver plated, cast brass bronze soundboard tone holes (a bargain at only $9,000/set)
these accessories may make any 5' grand piano sound like a Bauble Creek 9' concert grand.
In the future we expect to add quarter-sawn Sitka spruce tone reflectors (projected price
only $3,900), solid lignum vitea tuning pin tone couplers (at a special introductory price

of only $55 ea. You'll need just one for each tuning pin, but remember that quality costs
money. Lots of it.). Also under development is our special SnO-II soundboard polish (1/4
liter for only $200.) designed to improve the coupling efficiency between the soundboard
finish and the adjacent layer of air. We expect this polish to virtually double the
acoustic power output of any spinet piano.

In time, as you can see, well have the entire piano accessory market pretty well covered.

Regards,

Del

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

JIMRPT wrote:

> In a message dated 5/4/98 11:54:15 PM, pianobuilders@olynet.com wrote:
>
> <<"Next we'll be hearing that our Dampp-Chasers have to
> plugged in using nothing but oxygen-free Monster Cable.">>
>
> Del:
>   Come on now, it's not that bad....... although..........the best wood for
> cups does come from old growth forests, nesting trees are best, and the best
> petroleum comes from virgin dinosaurs. :-)
> Jim Bryant (FL)