A tenor bridge conversion

[Delwin D Fandrich]

| -----Original Message-----
| From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org 
| [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Stéphane Collin
| Sent: January 24, 2007 12:24 PM
| To: Pianotech List
| Subject: Re: A tenor bridge conversion

| . . . .

| I don't know Karl Schulze, but I happen to be very interested 
| in Carl Bechstein the Elder, who knew very well the french 
| pianos designs before making his own, and he perfectly knew 
| about equal tension scales, pure logarithmic treble bridges, 
| capo d'astro high treble sections, and even 25 wound bass 
| strings arrangements.  Yet he chose for the hockey stick 
| bridge and the treble agraffes.  And, as stated previously 
| in this interesting thread, his pianos are reported as 
| glorious instruments, at least by the pianists who play those.
| I think we tend to judge older designs with our modern ears.  
| It is exactly like reproaching Chopin not to have a sense for 
| polyphony.  Of course, Chopin didn't write polyphony, because 
| he was not after that, and same, older designers were not 
| after our contemporary asceptic vision of piano acoustics 
| (all curves flat, please).
| 
| Best regards.
| 
| Stéphane Collin.

Any new piano design tends to be judged in the light of the instrument, or
instruments, that immediately preceded it or that surround it. Many early
designs that we now consider to be obsolete were praised at the time -- and
rightly so. Assuming, of course, that there was some improvement in the new
design over its predecessors or its contemporaries. But that doesn't mean that
they were flawless. 

And, yes, I think you are right, we do tend to judge older designs with our
modern ears. But, shouldn't we do this? We certainly do with every other product
we buy. You buy a car based on its improvements over the car you already have,
for example. And we've (hopefully) learned something more about piano design
over the past 150 years. We now know how to design out at least some of the
problems that have plagued piano builders for decades.

The particular design characteristic under discussion -- the foreshortened tenor
bridge -- was considered to be a problem by at least two designers -- Wolfenden
and Morton -- of the period between 1915 and 1920. That's some time back and
they were already puzzled over why a practice they considered to be obsolete was
still being used in "new" designs. And they both expressed roughly similar
thoughts on the practice: they decried the weight of tradition, design laziness
and ignorance. 

Not much has changed.

Del