Voicing M&H BB

[DALE ERWIN]

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Hey Ron O and list

    Although the Mason & Hamlin BB has tremendous potential I find that m=
any especially from the late 1970's are tonally disappointing and some do=
wn right dismal  and it's not all hammer problems. I also have one from t=
hat era that's to die for and it had the green monsters and poor action  =
to start. What gives!!!
    Having worked on a many of these I think it's safe to say that when t=
he bellywork is set up right they're truly  Glorious(with the break being=
 the exception, BUT AS IS IN ANY GOOD PIANO ,THE BETTER THE BELLY SET UP =
THE LESS NOTICIABLE THESE WEAKNESSES ARE. (Sorry not shouting).  By setup=
 I mean rib crowned,nicely diaphramized, nice bridge work and very health=
y  and adequate amounts of bearing and voicing of course.  If this isn't =
the case then the kind o problems Terry F. is having will not lend themse=
lves well to a Full Mason BB sound. It's a rather fickle system. It reall=
y needs a cutoff bar added as well as detuned front duplexes with less co=
unterbearing angle as they frequently break strings.
     Who knows maybe you could get it to sound like a Yamaha if the board=
s that stingy.I.E loud attack short decay.  Terry do some plucking of the=
 strings in the treble and if the sing freely and bloom with out plucking=
 real hard you may have a chance with a good hammer.  Able, Ronsen and Is=
aac hammers all work well in these pianos. If you need samples I can send=
 you some of each, I think.
   My suggestion would be to install a few of these  hammers and voice th=
em and see which way the wind is blowing.

  Best---Dale Erwin

     =20
  =20
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----- Original Message -----
From: Overs Pianos
Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2001 1:27 AM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: Re: Voicing M&H BB
 =20
Terry,

>Junk hammers? I'll buy that. But why the HUGE change in tone across the
>break? I would think that if all the hammers are whatever grade of junk,
>then this must go way beyond hammers only.
>
>Del or Ron? Any input from a belly/scaling perspective?

While I am unsure whether the BB you describe bears any scaling or
bridge layout resemblance to the current BB, I had a look and listen
to the new BB which was displayed at Reno (at a quiet time in the
loading dock after the convention when our piano was being loaded out
on the Monday morning). My impression of this instrument was that the
impedance matching across the break between the treble and bass
bridge was perhaps one of most varied I had encountered on a 7'
grand. Its even more dramatic than the Steinway B. Both get
progressively thinner toned heading down towards the break, then
'boomy' and 'fat' at the first note on the bass bridge.

A quick look at the location (read distance) of the bridges out from
the inner rim told the story. Tapping on the ends of the bridges
further confirmed my suspicion (yes you can do this even when the
piano is strung - try it!). The upper end of the bass bridge was
located far away from the inner rim (as is typical on so many
pianos), while the lower end of the treble bridge headed over towards
the bass side to end up too close to the rim. The poor tonal
transition was mostly a consequence of the bridge location on the
board, but the 'hockey stick' treble scale didn't help either.  The
tension was obviously falling away rather badly towards to lower
tenor area of the long bridge. I would like to get a copy of the
speaking lengths and wire diameters if any one has info on hand. If
anyone's got the scale I would like to get it as an attachment. Send
it to mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au

When there is a major change in the response of the board over the
break, there is nothing the voicer can do to fix the transition.

Actually, I was somewhat disappointed at the design of the BB. I had
heard so much about the piano before going to Reno, so I was
expecting something really good.

Ron O
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Website:  http://www.overspianos.com.au
Email:        mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au
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