Open face vs. closed face pin blocks

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Phillip L Ford" <fordpiano@lycos.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: August 15, 2001 9:30 PM
Subject: Re: Open face vs. closed face pin blocks



> .... Probably there is some lower limit on the amount of
> stiffness required to give what we now consider good tone and acceptable
> tuning stability and once you are beyond that it doesn't really matter how
> you achieve it.

I'm sure you're right. I suspect those pianos down close to that lower limit
have long ago self-destructed. Our experience is with the survivors.



> At this point I think that if I was building a piano I would lean towards
an
> open face design.

Me to.



> I feel that a stronger theoretical case could be made for capo vs.
> agraffes but once again my personal experience has been that there
> are some fine pianos with agraffes all the way to the top so it's pretty
> hard for me to say that the capo design should be better.

I agree. And for most of my career I have assumed that the capo d'astro bar
system was inherently superior. And in terms of measurable numbers, they
are. But, as I've said in earlier posts, my experience has shown that
all-agraffe systems can work exceptionally well. Perhaps the numbers don't
mean as much as we have long thought and/or been taught. Or, perhaps we're
looking at the wrong numbers.



> It's too
> bad that there are so many variables that it's hard to isolate these
specific
> things so that they can be studied.  It would be nice (in some ways) to
> build two pianos that were exactly the same except for the one thing that
> you wanted to study. I can add this to my ever expanding wish list.

Those lists do keep getting longer and longer, don't they.

Del