At 11:00 PM +0100 1/3/02, Isaac OLEG SIMANOT wrote: >John, or anyone who can help me. > >I like to have some thoughts on an IBACH grand 1.90 m this one was build in >1919 . > >A friend had put new strings on it and the sound seems a little short and >constrained in the medium. > >The board is well shaped, but I noticed he allows for a lot of load (down >bearing) on the basses. > >What can you tell me about the soundboard of these fine instruments. is it a >bit stiff, asking for a good load, or is it more flexible and need a lighter >one ? My main hire piano is a 240 cm. Ibach Model "Richard Wagner" (Wagner played these) and it is a match for a Steinway D in two piano work. They can be excellent. I have worked on a few from this period but don't know when they changed the basic design to what I consider an inferior design -- Ibach has various distinct periods. On the earlier design, the bearing is obtained using shaped beech blocks about 12 x 12 mm. in section covered with bearing cloth. The plate is specially shaped in front of the hitch-pins to take these bearing blocks. Careless restorers dismantle the piano and either lose these blocks or think they can make do with just a strip of felt. I was called as a witness in a court case where this had happened and the piano sounded awful. I later had the job of putting things right and the piano came up beautifully. Since these blocks are immediately in front of the hitch-pins, it is important to make the bass strings with a single German eye and not the English eye, otherwise the coils lie above the bearing and you get diminished and irregular downbearing. At 11:00 PM +0100 1/3/02, Isaac OLEG SIMANOT wrote: >My friend computed the new strings tension (he told me accordingly to Klaus >Fenner, but I am really not sure he take Ih in account, may be there is a >problem there too) JD, do you have an original scaling from this model, so I >could try to understand how it looks ? Ibach's original bass scales are not bad. Send me the string lengths (speaking lengths) and I will have a look for you. I will almost certainly have a scale for this piano and I nearly always record the measurements taken from the original patterns. What you mean by "according to Fenner" in this case I don't know. If you send me details of the scale he used, then I will be able to judge. However, it sounds from what you say that you may have too much downbearing, probably not only in the bass. I've come across plenty of Steinways and Bösendorfers with bad patches or bad all through, but Ibachs of the best periods are good. What action does it have? Probably this model is too late to have the Ibach/Isermann action with the silk spring adjustment (very nice), and too late also for the simplified anglo-german action used on cheaper models. Ibach hammers were never heavy and never used underfelt. JD
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