High tension? Low? Board stiffness? was Hammer Types

[David Love]

While I have begun to play with scaling I still rely heavily on experts in
the field for guidance-especially in the area of bass scaling.  Fandrich and
Nossaman have both been very helpful to me in this area.  Both have also put
new designs on S&S Bs that involve adding a tenor bridge, new bass bridge
and probably new long bridge as well.  Nossaman's piano was at the
convention.  For the S&S B whose data I included, which was not getting a
new soundboard, I made a new bridge cap for the capo section which allowed
me to alter the speaking lengths and make them more logarithmic smoothing
the tension in that section.  I increased the plain wire diameters in the
low tenor to raise the tension and the bass scaling was modified as well.
Adding wrapped strings to the tenor was a possibility but it seemed like six
of one when the numbers were run.  Each had its pluses and minuses.   The
Knabe is getting new soundboard, long bridge and added tenor bridge.  

 

In playing around with scaling info I look at everything (tension,
inharmonicity loudness) but pay most attention to tension, inharmonicity,
loudness in that order.  It's nice to get everything in a smooth curve for
everything but tension seems to be the most important.  

 

David Love
davidlovepianos at comcast.net
www.davidlovepianos.com 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Alan McCoy
Sent: Saturday, October 21, 2006 6:07 PM
To: 'Pianotech List'
Subject: RE: High tension? Low? Board stiffness? was Hammer Types

 

Thanks for supplying these numbers David. I'm putting them into Pscale so I
can see the graphs and do some experimenting. Would the B be better off with
another bridge or just wrapped strings in the low tenor? If changing wire
size alone doesn't do the trick, it sure makes for a more expensive rebuild!

 

In assessing a scale, do you look at loudness/sustain or hammer contact time
at all?

 

Alan

 

--Alan McCoy, RPT
Inland Northwest Chapter
Spokane, WA
ahm at webband.com 

  _____  

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of David Love
Sent: Friday, October 20, 2006 12:06 PM
To: 'Pianotech List'
Subject: RE: High tension? Low? Board stiffness? was Hammer Types

One of the problems with assessing tension in scales is illustrated by the
data below.  The plain wire sections of the original scales on two pianos
are listed:  Steinway B and Knabe 6'4".  You can see that the range within
each piano is fairly broad.  Ever wonder why you had such a voicing problem
getting the low end of the tenor section to blend well with the bass on a
Steinway B?  On the Knabe you can see that the tensions range from a low of
138 to a high of 209 lbs.  Both of these pianos received a bit of scale
alteration.  

 

 

David Love
davidlovepianos at comcast.net
www.davidlovepianos.com 

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