Broads

[Terry Neely]

1836---Hmmmm Wasn't that pretty early in the history of the plate? Is this a
partial plate? What kind of hammers does this instrument have? Are they
leather or felt or a combination? In this country, pianos of this vintage
are often in museums.
            Terry Neely, RTP chapter
Richard Brekne wrote:

> Hi folks.
>
> Well, I finally got around to opening up my 1836 (methinks) Broadwood
> that I will be attempting to put back together and I have a few
> questions  I'd like to have some answers to. Number 1 and first and
> formost... Was there any real crown built into the sound boards of these
> things. I will describe what I have in front of me as best I can.
>
> Sitting at this square piano and looking over the more or less
> triangular shaped sound board from that angle, you see the grain moving
> off at about 45 degrees.  There are ribs going at about 20 degrees, not
> exactly all that much across the grain, and these lengths are broken by
> three ribs that run straight out at 90 degrees which are found right
> under the bridge area.  Am I mistaken here or would this do little or
> nothing to balancing cross grain and with grain stiffness ? Certainly
> doesn't seem like a recipe for a compression crown in any case.
>
> The Bridge has that typical reverse in direction relative to sound board
> grain for these... and in this the greater part of the bridge is more or
> less at right angles to the grain, except in the treble area after where
> it swings around and follows the grain. What was that discussion about
> mass in the treble rim and stiffness in the bass rim ? There is also a
> coupling from the board to the pin block in this area, presumably to
> address both mass and stiffness.
>
> So... back to the original question. Are these boards meant to be
> basically flat ?. Strings come off tomorrow and I can give you some more
> info about what observable crown there is (real difficult to ascertain
> from underneath here) and what down bearing looks like.
>
> Thanks for any advice / observations.
>
> RicB
>
> --
> Richard Brekne
> RPT, N.P.T.F.
> Bergen, Norway
> mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no