At 8:48 AM +0000 12/5/01, Phillip L Ford wrote: >John, >You've mentioned this Brinsmead piano a few times now. I've never >seen one. Could you give us a bit more description of this beast. >Particularly some details about the rib placement. By the way, is >this a straight (flat) strung piano? It would take me a long time to sing all Brinsmead's praises. To me he is practically the only English grand maker worthy of mention. Kirkman's left the scene too early. The golden years from Brinsmead were during the lifetimes of John, Tom and Edgar and ran from about 1870 to 1905, so the first really nice pianos were straight strung and they continued making s/s uprights as well as overstrungs till the turn od the century. I have an 1880 straight strung upright at home which is priceless as a piece of furniture (faultless burr walnut veneer on a solid walnut substrate with Adam satinwood inlay -- even the veneer on the back of the panels is good) and very interesting as regards piano design, with an adjustable crown soundboard and very elaborately worked out string scaling, bridges and terminations. But it is the grands that I rave about. I mentioned the 'sostenente' soundboard some while ago and said I planned to look into this at the Patent Office. Well I was there the other day for several hours looking for various patents but this was one of several that I could not locate, much to my annoyance. One or two books from crucial years were misplaced and it was time to get the coach home before I was told they had duplicates. So I'm no wiser yet as to the specs for this design and the only piano I can get at for a thorough examination is over the water in Cherbourg. I made some rough sketches recently from a nearer example but could not impose on the lady long enough to make detailed measurements, let alone drive my invisible needles through the board or take in my three fathom calipers! Brinsmead's ribs are of soundboard wood and in three lengths glued together with the two outer lengths deeper than the central length and possibly with the grain differently disposed. My notebook is at the shop but I think the section is about 25mm neglecting the 'trough'. The ribs radiate from a point some distance in front of the keyboard -- again not enough time to calculate where. As to the quality of the "tonewood" -- which we all know is a nonsense :-) -- A1 Swiss well quartered and finished very bright. That's only part of the story, of course, because to discover the reason for its remarkable behavior I need to look at all the other factors, and as you know, you set out with an apparently simple investigation in view but it can take ages to make these investigations thoroughly and get accurate data. The outer rim of the overstrung Brinsmead grands is continuous and made of 1/4" laminae of solid Spanish mahogany unveneered. The top is of Spanish mahogany but also veneered. His scales were carefully calculated and "sensible", though the bass singles/bichords break is in an old-fashioned position (forgive the technical jargon). From at the latest 1880 onwards, Brinsmead had a special steel wire made of extremely high quality and very tough. Whether he had Poehlmann make it I don't know but it's as good as Poehlmann's and is coppered and nickeled so that it really will not rust - nothing at all like modern Röslau plated ploughsteel. It is the best wire I've ever known and I've never seen it on anything but Brinsmeads. I just hate having to replace it, as one must of course. The reason there are relatively few Brinsmead grands about is probably, I think, because the patent action wears and gets heavier and heavier putting more strain of the centres at the same time and leading eventually to total unplayability. The girl from Cherbourg is at the Royal Academy in London and hammers hell out of this machine, which she adores -- her father is in our line so it's up to him. Technicians don't know how to deal with the action and condemn it, and with it the piano. I was talking to him the other day and am insisting he bring the action over for a revision. This girl is to be a pupil of Marta Argerich's, so that joanna's going to need some bones. JD
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