Speaking of Steinway grand sizes

[John Delacour]

At 22:55 +0100 7/2/08, Richard Brekne wrote:

>...I was tempted to look closer at the density of the wrap... 
>0.89.... multiplying the diameter of the wrap by this figure... but 
>I suppose thats not really related.

Not in the slightest.

>There is no straight forward formula for calculating the end 
>diameter then ?  It <<depend>> on how much tension is applied by the 
>string maker ?

Well, if he doesn't get very near to a 10% reduction using soft 
copper (eg. Degen) covering wire, he's not much of a stringmaker, so 
the calculation is very simple: ds+(1.8*dc).  The figure might be a 
bit different for half-hard copper.

>...S&S history surrounding the Miniature tho... seems quite possible 
>that from its inception up until the O, M and L were officially 
>designated that several scales were tried.

All those I've dealt with have a very similar scale.  Once you've 
spent all that time working out such a special scale, why bother 
changing it :-)  or anything else about the piano.

JD