Hello Jon and all, At 8:10 PM -0400 10/3/09, Jon Page wrote: >Sent privately: >>YC made an "improvement" to their grands at one point that >>consisted of grinding the capo flat and installing a cast >>termination. As you have discovered it presents many problems as >>the cast material was WAY too soft and grooved immediately. I'm >>not sure there is a good solution. But at least you know you are >>not alone. YC reverted to the original system after the complaints >>became overwhelming. I saw lots of these years ago as I did a lot >>of contract work for PianoDisc who bought YCs by the carload at the >>time. > >I don't recall this topic on the list before but it is good general >knowledge to have. >Does anyone know the years involved with this soft v-bar? I've seen these bars also Jon. A colleague supplied me with a sample - simply rubbish material. >Since I can't even get one note to be stable and the rest of the >treble is shaky, >I'll have to remedy the situation in order to sell it. Maybe dealers >can push out >this crap but I'm not willing to. > >Any reason why I couldn't use an easy material such as brass? I believe its too soft. >Suggestions welcome. >I'll also ease the sharp profile on the counter bearing duplex or >replace it altogether with >a half round or half oval. You can also build another small hardened V-bar for each of the two treble string sections, which can be located right at the edge of the plate web closest to the capo. This will help to clean up the tone and minimise the patented string-noise technology. >So much for profit. Integrity is more important. It's not like I'll >be losing money it's just >that it'll take more hours to attain the same amount, less >profitable but more rewarding. I understand how you feel. I also have done this, but it sometimes turns into a learning experience which can be useful for the future. You may be interested in building one of these hardened tool-steel capo bars (see below) that I built for a two-year-old grand which had bars that wouldn't respond to heat treatment. This job was done not long after I returned from the 2006 Rochester National Convention. The cap screws are screwed into threads which are tapped into the iron plate after the original capo V-bar was ground off. The end closest to the strut between the agraffes and capo sections can be accommodated by die grinding the draw from the iron plate adjacent to the first note on the capo section. This provides just enough room to fit the cap screw while still allowing the string lines to run through from the centre tuning pin to the speaking length in a straight line. This is especially important with hardened bars, because the wire will continue to skid along the bar during tuning if the strings segments are not aligned properly. If you'd like to build one of these bars Jon, I'd be happy to call you on Skype and talk you through the production process. You'll also need to build a heat-sink before hardening the bar, but its quite simple to do. One further comment about the only-three cap screws holding the bar in place. During the hardening process the bar will shrink slightly in length along the apex of the V-bar. This will cause the bar to take on a slight upward curvature along its length. This proves to be most useful, because the cap screws will pull the bar straight when it is fitted to the plate, which will result in firm contact all along the V-bar length between the bar and the plate. It is critically important for tone that no part of the capo insert should be unsupported. If you can't see the image above, a copy can be found at; http://users.tpg.com.au/ronovers/ptr.custom.capo.jpg The square-section bar in the image is the off-cut of the ground stock from which the new bar was made. While it doesn't help to pay the bills, solving surprises along the way can be a wonderful educational experience. In the particular V-bar case mentioned above, I was a bit lucky because the local dealer asked me to do the work to demonstrate the OEM capo problem to the manufacturer, so the dealer footed the bill for the work. The tonal result was most satisfactory, particularly since the plate of this piano had a very short gap between the pin-block web and capo, so I was able to make the counterbearing lengths relatively quite short. Many manufacturers just don't seem to understand this stuff. Once again, for the 'doubting Thomas's' out there, I'll include two quality mp3 sound files of a piano with hardened capo and front duplex bars, the Overs 225 piano. Only two people had a listen last Friday when I published these links on Pianotech. But be sure to freshly restart your computer before opening the link to the mp3. When the RAM memory is busy with a lot of programmes open, the sound quality can be full of glitches and noise. With a freshly restarted computer and free RAM memory, using headphones you'll hear a clean download. (please click on the mp3 links below to hear recordings of a piano with hardened capo and front duplex bars - if the link doesn't automatically load, copy the link into your favourite web browser) http://users.tpg.com.au/onyxer/Corelli.mp3 Scott Davie's recording of Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op. 42 Piano: Overs 225 no. 3 - duration 18'38 Copies of the original CD from which this was taken are still available Sydney jazz pianist and composer Mike Nock recorded a CD with his trio on an Overs 225 piano. The following mp3 of Mike's composition, Acceptance, can be heard at; http://users.tpg.com.au/dotmewes/Acceptance.mp3 Piano: Overs 225 no. 3 - duration 7'04 The performers are; Mike Nock - piano, Brett Hirst - acoustic bass, Toby Hall - drums. The original CD is sold out. Regards, Ron O. -- OVERS PIANOS - SYDNEY Grand Piano Manufacturers _______________________ Web http://overspianos.com.au mailto:ron at overspianos.com.au _______________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090312/946bd209/attachment-0001.html> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: ptr.custom.capo.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 57433 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090312/946bd209/attachment-0001.jpg>
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