speaking of dogleg at treble break, I noticed my upright http://pianoplayer.hey.nu/pianopics/Ricca-Inside-Big.jpg has the dogleg at the break. (It's kinda hard to see it through the action which btw is badly in need of regulation as you can probably see, but you should be able to see it.) It's between notes c#5 and d5. I wonder if that's why D5 is always slipping out of tune... ok.. now about the tenor end of a treble bridge... what are your thoughts on different bridge designs? for example, what would you like or dislike about having a hockeystick http://pianoplayer.hey.nu/chickeringpianos/Chickering-67BB-sn94850-1901-52h65w28d-insidebottom.jpg bridge, (in the case of that piano by looking at other pics, I can tell it has 6 wound trichord unisons in the tenor, but it's hard if not impossible to tell in that pic) a curved tenor section (no pic for this one), or a separate tenor bridge which http://pianoplayer.hey.nu/knabepianos/Knabe-upright-sn53193-1903-inside2.jpg has, or design the plate so you move the break up a few notes, and run plain wire all the way to the break with a straight bridge, like my piano is (ok.. I noticed it has a little bit of a curve)? Also, what would you like or dislike about putting wound strings in the tenor as opposed to plain wire all the way to the break (assuming the piano is otherwise well scaled?) Personally, I don't like wound strings above a2 or a#2, so for pretty much most large uprights, I would prefer a piano with plain wire all the way to the break. (On the other hand, if it had something like a 20-note bass, I could put up with a few wound string unisons in the tenor section, if it was scaled and voiced well.) What are some well-scaled larger verticals that you all have seen? Also, anyone know of any good vertical scales with plain wire (preferably trichords) going down to a#2 or b2 (besides the Steinway K)? I personally, unless it's a small piano (under 48"), don't like to have wound strings above a2 or a#2. Pretty much all pianos I've played that had them (wound strings up to, say, d3 or higher, or even just b2, c3, or c#3) didn't sound the way I wanted them to, and pianos that had plain wire down to an octave or a little more below middle C sounded better to my ear (with the exception of my sister's 52" Hallet & Davis upright with plain trichords down to b2, which has badly worn hammers and desperately needs new ones and has the curved bridge section. Comparing a Yamaha A1 to a Young Chang 150 (both are pretty much the same size baby grand), I would have to say I like the tenor sound of the Yamaha better than the Young Chang. -- Stephen Airy stephenairy@fastmail.fm
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