Bird-Cage pianos question

[Robert Wilson]

--- John Delacour <JD@Pianomaker.co.uk> wrote:
> At 2:48 PM -0800 12/22/01, Robert Wilson wrote:
> 
> >Overdamping
> >was the standard piano action type in those days. 
> You
> >find a lot of variations where different designs
> were
> >tried and discarded.  The birdcage was the norm and
> >eventually was overtaken by the underdamper.
> 
> Not so.  It varied according to the maker's
> preference.  Erard, 
> Broadwood, Schiedmayer and Kirkman never made an
> overdamper so far as 
> I know, and though Bechstein was a latecomer,
> neither did he.  The 
> underdamper action either preceded the overdamper or
> developed 
> simultaneously.  I think it's easy to get a biassed
> view in England, 
> where overdampers had a pretty long run.
> 
> JD
> 
Erard certainly did make overdamper pianos, I tune one
regularly!
Your later comments may be right, but it it
interesting that makers changed their preferences to
underdamper and ceased to manufacture overdampers.
Either way I still say that overdampers were more
prevalent and now have given way to the underdamper -
after all, I am not aware of anyone manufacturing an
overdamper piano today!

Bob Wilson
London



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