Stephen, Question: What do think is the reasoning behind the Erard design, placing the checking mechanism in front of the hammer? My guess was either a touch weight issue, eliminating the extra weight on the hammer and backcheck, then transferring the checking onto the shank, or possibly could it be a tonal issue ( less mass on the hammer). Erards do have a very unique musical quality and I'm intrigue to understand what they did which was so different. Interested in your thought.Tom Servinsky,RPT ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephen Birkett" <birketts@wright.aps.uoguelph.ca> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2001 11:06 PM Subject: Re:Erard grand piano > Clark wrote: > > Tom, Thanks for the insight. I didn't pull the action, because when I > > saw the dampers coming from the bottom, I didn't know what I was getting > > into, and I didn't want to break anything. Pictures will be forthcoming, > > but it will take awhile. Clark Sprague > > The underdampers are attached to a rack attached to the bellyrail. There > is no direct connection to the action itself. They operate by virture of > an L-shaped wire that sticks out the back of the action and interacts > with the pad at the bottom of the damper, when the key goes down, and > whippen goes up. No problem to pull the action in the normal way. > > By the way, the checks in front of the hammerheads were used on the very > first of Erard's action designs, the patent of 1821. On that design the > checks are attached to wooden sticks that pass through the hammer shank. > Hammer shank consists of two pieces of wood like thin popsicle sticks, > with blocks separating them...forming a ladder, hence the name echelle. > Some time in the 1830s Erard introduced (but didn't patent the change > because it was a variant on the original patent) a new, more robust > design, in which the checks are wires that pass through the shank, which > is a single stick that splays out at the hammer head end to provide the > opening for the check wire to pass through. I've seen an 1832 Erard with > the original action design and I recently acquired an 1836 Paris Erard > with the new design action that looks original (not retro-fitted by Erard > as he sometimes did for customers with the old actions), so it's likely > this new action design was introduced sometime between 1832-36. It was > used until the end of the century, inclduing by builders such as Bluthner > when they used the Erard action. So Clark, your action is likely the same > one. > > Stephen > > Stephen Birkett Fortepianos > Authentic Reproductions of 18th and 19th Century Pianos > 464 Winchester Drive > Waterloo, Ontario > Canada N2T 1K5 > tel: 519-885-2228 > mailto: birketts@wright.aps.uoguelph.ca > >
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