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First on-line images of the Overs-Kawai 200 grand pianoHello Ron and =
List
Who's been a busy boy then?? This reads like a fairy tale. I =
particularly like the British Racing Green - shades of faster than =
Horowicz! The images didn't come out as "clickable" so I shall try the =
old gerfinger-poken-unt-mitten-grabben method. Looking forward to the =
SLR digitised images.
Michael G.(UK)
----- Original Message -----=20
From: Overs Pianos=20
To: Pianotech=20
Cc: Martin Cop=20
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 4:39 PM
Subject: First on-line images of the Overs-Kawai 200 grand piano
Hi all,
I've just come through a couple of busy months. The last couple weeks =
I've put in over 80 hours on tools per week, to get the Yamaha CF =
rebuild out the door for its first concert tomorrow. Before that, we've =
been building a new piano out of a Kawai KG5 case and plate, a =
commission from pianist Gerard Willems, the concert pianist who recorded =
the Beethoven piano works on the Stuart piano. The Overs-Kawai is for =
his home studio. We are prepared to build further examples of the =
Overs-Kawai 200 for FOB A$60,000 (plus 10% GST for local buyers).
I'm pleased with the outcome of this design exercise, as I wanted to =
create a piano with a long-ish sustain and a smaller dynamic range, to =
produce an instrument more suited to a smaller studio. I believe the =
power of our 225 piano is way too much for a small studio. I also wanted =
to produce a studio instrument with a more economical finish than the =
standard high gloss finish. After experimenting with a number of colour =
mixes I arrived at a dark green (somewhat darker than British racing =
green). A semi-gloss two pack polyurethane in the green was sprayed off =
the gun.
The new 200 cm piano also features an Overs action, two new struts =
from the plate to the belly rail (originally there were none), a large =
sound board cut-off and an I rib board. There is no treble cut-off in =
this piano since it originally had a relatively small sound board area =
out behind the bridge in the top treble bridge section. The bridges and =
scale are a new design, with a nominal bridge height of 34 mm and a =
width of 35 mm. All bridge caps are multi-laminated maple veneer glued =
up with West System.
Images can now be found at;
http://members.optusnet.com.au/ronovers/overskawai1.jpg
The sound board is made from solid sitka spruce and is fully rib =
crowned and supported. It is darker in colour because we haven't =
bleached it. The bass corner cutt-off is made from a hardwood-ply =
laminated sheet which has a softer rock maple veneer top and bottom. The =
inside surface of the outer rim was originally black, but the veneer =
underneath was undamaged and with quite a nice figure, so we stained it =
and finished it with acid cat lacquer at the same time as we sprayed the =
board top and bridges. One of the nice things I like about grands where =
the pin block is removable, is that you can respray the inner rim, sound =
board and action bay with a clear finish coating in the one operation. =
This approach allows us to avoid the typical 'straw-broom-finish' which =
pervades most action bays. I remain unconvinced of the alleged superior =
tuning stability of those designs in which the pin block and stretcher =
rail is built integral with the case. I really like the Kawai KG6 as a =
shell from which to build a decent small grand (especially the earlier =
examples with the oak rims and back beams). I believe these instruments, =
when rebuilt appropriately, will outclass a new S&S model B.
http://members.optusnet.com.au/ronovers/overskawai2.jpg
This image shows the treble string sections. There are no specific =
front duplex lengths in this design. Any noisy duplex segments get a =
couple of drops of glue along the duplex segment to detune the noise. =
The typical Kawai half-round-chromed rear stringing pillow has been =
substituted with a hardwood antarctic beech strip, which is profiled in =
thickness to achieve the desired downbearing settings (I prefer to set =
the downbearing by varying the stringing pillow height instead of =
varying the bridge height - this is because I want a certain bridge =
stiffness to avoid tonal 'dips' between the sound board ribs). The =
stringing pillows are covered with green felt to slightly dampen the =
back scale activity, without the need of a listing strip. The serial no. =
first section, "OK1", represents Overs-Kawai s/n 1, while the 662460 is =
the serial number of the original shell.
http://members.optusnet.com.au/ronovers/overskawai3.jpg
This image from the bent side shows the green outer finish a little =
lighter than it is. The camera flash washed the foreground a bit. The =
plate is close to original with the exception that the strut junction at =
the bass/treble break is re-profiled to improve its aesthetics, and the =
plate perimeter bolts and set bolts are all chromed dome nuts, similar =
to the Overs 225 pianos, with a Baldwin style plate mounting system. The =
capo bars received their usual re-profiling and hardening. Also notice =
that the strut between the agraffe and first capo section has been =
ground to allow bridge clearance. The higher 34 mm bridge, combined with =
the much smaller crown radius causes the bridges to sit much higher in =
the piano, particularly in the mid sections. The stringing pillow =
heights in the tenor sections are often as high as 10 mm. Ideally, a =
crown in the treble hitch plate would help the setup where high-crowned =
replacement sound boards are fitted. The original crown in the belly =
rail is removed, prior to fitting the sound board cutoff, to slightly =
reduce the final bridge height in the middle.
http://members.optusnet.com.au/ronovers/overskawai4.jpg
This image shows the new bass bridge design. The suspended bridge is =
now thankfully gone, and the speaking length of A1 is shortened by 20 mm =
to allow for a longer back scale. Similarly, the hitch pins for the =
singles have been moved back so that A1's hitch is as close as possible =
to the back of the plate. The original piano had an A1 =
free-backscale-segment length of only 85 mm. This new configuration =
yields a free length of 135 mm at A1. With the double looped german =
eyes, this piano is now producing a very acceptable low bass for a 200 =
cm piano. The bass cut-off can be seen meeting with the bass side about =
a foot (300 mm) back from the hinge cut-out. The darker wood moulding =
between the sound board and cut-off area is antarctic beech. The plate =
is fitted using the Baldwin style mounting system, so the visible hole =
in plate perimeter-flange is for accessing the plate height adjustment =
screw, prior to fitting the perimeter bolts.
http://members.optusnet.com.au/ronovers/overskawai5.jpg
Well that's it for the this piano for now. The lid and fall has to be =
sprayed with top coat yet. Should be all completed in a couple of weeks.
The Yamaha CF which we rebuilt for Dubbo Council went out on Tuesday. =
The sound board re-crowning was very successful. This piano now has lots =
of sound board crown and it sunk out no more than a standard new sound =
board during the stringing process. The re-whatevered instrument seems =
to have lost its characteristic Yamaha-CF-light-tone, with the modified =
board yielding a much darker tone. While the plate was re-installed into =
the case to the same height as original, the cast stringing pillows had =
to be packed up by around 5 mm to achieve the desired down bearing =
settings. This indicates that the crown of the restored board was =
considerably higher than when the piano was new. Notably, the tone in =
the killer octave area was most satisfactory. We used new CF3 hammers =
for this repair and I must say I'm totally struck on the quality of the =
Wurzen felt. Thank you Andr=E9 for bringing this hammer felt to our =
attention. The tonal balance over the compass of the piano was quite =
remarkably even, even before any voicing was undertaken. I've taken =
images of the re-crowning process, but they were taken with my =
conventional SLR camera. The Overs-Kawai images are the first digital =
images we've taken. I may post a report to the list regarding the =
re-crowning process once I get the images scanned. I predict that a lot =
more re-crowning jobs will be undertaken in instances where the panel is =
not split.
Ron O.
--=20
OVERS PIANOS - SYDNEY
Grand Piano Manufacturers
_______________________
Web http://overspianos.com.au
mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au
_______________________
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