Scaling/Restringing Problem on 1909 5' Ivers & Pond #46320

Michael Magness IFixPianos at yahoo.com
Wed May 21 09:23:13 MDT 2008


Hi Dale,

It's a little 5 footer, belongs to a customer who likes the Louis the IVth
style case and legs.
Mike

On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 9:52 AM, <erwinspiano at aol.com> wrote:

>
>   Hey Michael
>   First, how big is the piano? Does 82 mean inches or what?
>    I have rebuilt many of the uprights but only one 6 ft Ivers & pond
> Grand.  It is an awesome piano but has a weird scale. It wasn't possible to
> change it much because of the bridge shape. Many of the tensions were near
> at 70 % of the breaking strength. Never the less it had never broken a
> string till I tuned it in the shop prior to destringing.
>   It's an interesting rascal with a thick board of .400 and veryflat ribs.
> It showed no crown when strung but had a fantastic crown when un strung.It
> was obviously designed this way.
>     As I often say, .....Many thing work.
>   I highly suggest you measure the string lengths very carefully & run them
> thru P-scale or some other program to invent a scale that looks real.  I
> suspect the bridge is not going to allow you much latitude. On mine for
> example I had something like 12 unison of no. 15 wire & that's what worked
> best.
>   The bass had two unison of trichord right at the top.  I went with
> bi-chords there.
>   I Loved the sound of this piano & still see once in a while. The sustain
> is unbelievable. Of course I've heard that the sound is always the best when
> the breaking strain is high.....right before the string .....breaks...yikes
>   Ivers & pond had some odd ideas but they were a quality builder.
>   Dale
>
>  I brought this piano in for a full rebuild and removed bass/wound strings
> first, which extend to D3 in this particular scale, so as to take all of the
> measurements, rubbings and info to send to James Arledge.
> The problem arose when I turned to the Travis guide to restringing to find
> the scale, there were three possibilities, one was labeled "82", the piano
> I'm working on has "83" cast into the plate in 2" letters, one had a
> number(serial number?) lower than mine #42164, the last was just an I&P
> scale.
> As I began checking wire sizes none of them matched any of the scales from
> the book, not even the scale for the 5'3" I&P!
>
> Checking at appropriate intervals I found, #14 wire on 88&87, 13&1/2 on 84,
> 14 on 81, 14 & 1/2 on 80, 14 on 75, 15 on 72 & 70 and finally found 16 on
> 62. Number 56 is #22 wire!!!
>
> From the look and condition of the piano I'm relatively certain all strings
> are originals or any replacements are very old so as to appear original.
>
> If anyone has any info they can share about this instrument or has rebuilt
> one in the past and wishes to share their experience, it would be greatly
> appreciated.
>
> I did not expect nor include in the estimate a rescale but am prepared to
> do so barring any other info.
>
> Thanks,
> Mike
>
> --
> Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch
> excellence.
> Vince Lombardi
>
> Michael Magness
> Magness Piano Service
> 608-786-4404
> www.IFixPianos.com <http://www.ifixpianos.com/>
> email mike at ifixpianos.com
>  ------------------------------
> Plan your next roadtrip with MapQuest.com<http://www.mapquest.com/?ncid=mpqmap00030000000004>:
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>



-- 
Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch
excellence.
Vince Lombardi

Michael Magness
Magness Piano Service
608-786-4404
www.IFixPianos.com
email mike at ifixpianos.com
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