This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment ----- Original Message -----=20 From: "Clyde Hollinger" <cedel@supernet.com> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: June 19, 2003 3:30 AM Subject: piano design question > Friends, >=20 > The Piano Book by Larry Fine mentions that the Kohler & Campbell > Millennium pianos have "individual hitch pin stringing" rather than > duplex scaling. What is the perceived value of this? It seems like a > lot more work to manufacture, and I've only seen it once, in a 1980s > Horugel grand, not exactly a quality piano. >=20 > Regards, > Clyde Hollinger, RPT > Lititz, PA, USA Clyde, This illustrates one of the difficulties with evaluating a piano based = on specific features. As you say, it was a feature of the Horrible = Horugel pianos. But it is also a feature of some very high-end and = excellent European pianos. By themselves neither specific features nor = specific materials have much to do with the structural integrity or the = musical value of any piano. This question also raises the question of just what is meant by the term = duplex scaling. MS Encarta=AE defines duplex as: 1) twofold--consisting of two parts, especially (but not limited = to--ddf) two identical or equivalent parts, 2) having two parts performing one operation--consisting of pairs = of units or components that perform the same machine function but = operate independently. All pianos have duplex scaling by our common usage of the term. But not = all pianos have tuned duplex stringing, or aliquot stringing. Each = string in the piano is made up of three basic, or working, segments. The = so-called speaking length (which, by virtue of its length, diameter and = mass, and its tension, is tuned to some specific pitch or frequency); = the so-called front duplex (which may or may not be tuned to some = partial of the speaking part); and the so-called rear duplex (again, = which may or may not be tuned to some partial of the speaking part). = (And, yes, I'm deliberately ignoring a few other miscellaneous parts.) It is due, at least in part, to the confusion that exists over the use = of these terms that I have begun referring to the string segment between = the rear bridge pin and the rear bearing bar in whatever form that may = take (or the hitch pin in the case of vertical hitches) as the = backscale. And, similarly, the distance between the V-bar and/or agraffe = and the front bearing bar, again in whatever form it may be, as the = frontscale. The speaking length remains either that or becomes the = speaking scale depending on my audience and/or the level of confusion in = my head at any given moment. There is some considerable debate over the value of tuning either the = frontscale or the backscale and it will not be resolved here. Suffice it = to say--and to answer your question--that having individually tied-off = strings (i.e., "individual hitch pin stringing") does not preclude also = having a tuned backscale. I'm not sure there are any examples of this = today but I'd not be surprised to find that it has been done in the = past. Nor is this feature an indication of any kind as to the musical = value--either good or bad--of the piano.=20 The only logical explanation I have heard for "individual hitch pin = stringing" has to do with tuning stability. The claim has been made that = with the (now common) practice of having two strings of potentially = different tensions sharing one hitchpin can result in the wire sliding = around the pins causing the piano to go out of tune as the tension = differential is equalized. Some millions of pianos in the world today = disprove this explanation.=20 I can think of only a few reasons for continuing this stringing = practice: -- It looks pretty. -- It is Tradition. -- The pianomaker has way too much time on his hands. Del ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/df/6a/c0/1e/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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