This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment Yes, Marcel, you=92re right. I found myself wondering as I wrote that. Whatever, I have found the Brinsmead pulls up a semi-tone with no = breakage trouble !! Thanks for pointing out my error! :-) Michael G.(UK) _____ =20 From: Marcel Carey [mailto:mcpiano@videotron.ca]=20 Sent: 06 October 2005 12:29 To: 'Pianotech' Subject: RE : Odd dimensions of sharps. =20 Michael, =20 If G#=3D440, I would think the piano would be 1/2 a step SHARP, not = flat. Now if A#=3D440, then it would be flat. =20 Marcel Carey, Sherbrooke, QC -----Message d'origine----- De : pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] De la = part de Michael Gamble Envoy=E9 : 6 octobre 2005 08:19 =C0 : Byeway222@aol.com; pianotech@ptg.org Objet : RE: Odd dimensions of sharps. Yes, Richard, I agree with the sharp business. There are many pianos I simply cannot get my fingers in between them! Height also plays a major = role in this. As for those older pianos, the Brinsmeads in particular I find extremely good tonally. Even very old uprights with the una-corda (L) = pedal. The strings are remarkable too =96 notice the coppery finish on the = lower steel strings =96 not the covered ones =96 I have found they respond = very well indeed to pitch raising =96 even from G#=3D440 ! Regards Michael G.(UK) =20 _____ =20 From: Byeway222@aol.com [mailto:Byeway222@aol.com]=20 Sent: 06 October 2005 00:00 To: pianotech@ptg.org Subject: Re: Odd dimensions of sharps. =20 Hi Michael and List, =20 I had forgotten about those round fronted sharps on Collards (I think Brinsmead did them as well). It's amazing that they went to all the = trouble of cutting the ivory to accommodate them, in fact, tonally most of those pianos were not worth all the trouble and decent materials which often = went into them. They all sounded as though they had been strung with loose knicker elastic. =20 However, the subject of sharps and their size and shape has always interested me as a pianist as well as a technician. I have always been conscious of sharps being comfortable or uncomfortable and I think that pianists often do not realise that one of the many reasons they don't = like the 'feel' of a piano is, in fact the sharps. I have a very good and immediate comparison in a college here, where I have a Steinway B and a Yamaha S6 in the same room. All the upper end of the market Yamahas = have rather 'chunky' sharps with quite an exaggerated front bevel. I believe = that they are made from some sort of composite material which resembles wood. = The Steinway still has much neater and thinner sharps which I have now = found, from questioning pianists, they prefer. Oddly, the smaller and cheaper Yamahas have plastic sharps with much neater ( and in my opinion) more comfortable dimensions. Over the years, my recollections of different keyboards often takes me back to a really super Knabe grand. There are = very few in UK, but this was a stunning piano musically, but it had the most incredibly 'short' sharps I have ever come accross. You felt as though = you were going to collide with the nameboard at any minute. =20 It would be interesting to hear other opinions on this whole business of keyboards and their 'feel' as a result of materials and their size and shaping. Just as the recently discussed Wurzen front punchings appear = to be part of a general building up of agreeable feel and tone, so, I feel = this business of keyboard materials, design and finish are also a very = important part of the picture. =20 =20 =20 =20 ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/f1/35/fc/6f/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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