Rear Duplex Bars on Steinways:

[Farrell]

I guess it all depends on your objective. Assuming you are starting with a Steinway - I believe there are/were other worthy manufacturers as well, the question might be: are you trying to build a Steinway or are you trying to build the best piano you can? Possibly two divergent directions.

I do know for most of man's other performance-related creations, rebuilding for performance almost invariably means modification. Only when one is trying to create a museum piece does one necessarily adhere to original specs.

Most good things evolve. Performance things most certainly must evolve.

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <A440A@aol.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2003 8:04 AM
Subject: Re: Rear Duplex Bars on Steinways:


> David writes:
> 
> > such things as the addition of cutoff bars, belly bracing, modifying the
> >bass bridge cantilever to increase backscale length, detuning the front
> >duplexes, rescaling, squaring the bridge notching in the low tenor and bass 
> sections, crowing the
> >ribs,  ; All of these "redesigns", will improve the overall
> >performance of the piano and I don't consider it in any way a desecration
> >of the original, just an improvement.
> 
> Greetings, 
>        Hmm,  maybe I should wait until you define "desecration".   This list 
> of "things to do" is more than refining makers' oversights, it is 
> re-engineering the sounding structure.   How far can a Steinway get its sound 
> improved without sounding like something other than a Steinway?   I would 
> question, are we simply continuing on  the developmental trajectory that the 
> originators of Steinways had in mind, or are we attempting to invent our own 
> sound by using a Steinway as our bass,  (treble ahead?).   
>     
> Ed Foote RPT 
> www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/
> www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
>  
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