A tenor bridge conversion

[ed440 at mindspring.com]

Calin-

The Mason and Hamlin A is a small piano that never fully resolved the bass break design.  Today I tuned a new M & H A, which has a hockey stick with two wound bichords on the end.  I suppose we could call the transition its "Achilles' heel," but it is a lovely piano.  I'd take it home any day.

With a bit of voicing the transition "bump" is only noticeable in certain ff passages with aggressive scalework.   The mother plays Classical, Romantic and Impressionist repertoire and has no problem.  The daughter plays Rock and Praise music and complains about the second bichord note!

As for the 1953 Bechstein, it's amazing they were able to get back in business and build anything, don't you think?  It's a small piano designed for a post-war recovering economy.

Ed Sutton


Calin wrote:
. But when you play a decent old Bechstein (as opposed to
>checking individual notes and stuff) you seldom are disturbed by problems at
>the break. I'm not saying they aren't there, just that they are not obvious
>during playing.
> 
>What Bechstein achieved better than most (in their older pianos) is the
>crystalline singing quality of the tenor and treble range, which is rarely
>surpassed. And don't forget that it's there where most of the music gets
>played. 
> 
>I hope that Ron Overs was able to retian that special Bechstein tone in his
>rebuild. Please keep sending pictures and maybe a recording when the piano
>is finished.
> 
>Calin Tantareanu
>http://calin.haos.ro <http://calin.haos.ro/> 
>-------------------- 
>
> 
>
>
>  _____  
>
>From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
>Of alan forsyth
>Sent: marţi, 23 ianuarie 2007 01:22
>To: Pianotech List
>Subject: Re: A tenor bridge conversion
>
>
> ... 
>As to why the manufacturers did it their way, I can only assume that it was
>to keep the harmonics in line as far down the scale as was possible. No
>matter how well a scale is designed there will always be a noticeable change
>in the harmonic content of the sound as soon as you reach the bass crossover
>point i.e. the change from plain strings to wound strings.
> 
>AF
> 
> ... 
>