As well, the ribs on the B are pared down significantly at this point so as to compromise the ribs crown support. FWIW Bs from different eras had this slat (pulsator bar officially) covering 3, 4 and 5 ribs, And on Bs from different time periods had 13 or 14 ribs as well as slightly different long bridge shapes/string scales. Obviously they had the luxury and were experimenting empirically but eventually settled on 13 ribs with the slat covering 5 ribs. I have removed this slat and extended the ribs as per what most makers do... to the corner on one of my B rebuilds about 5 years ago. I like the piano. As Ron N. has often said . I'll paraphrase...if you remove something that is supposed to be a design feature and the change is undetectable then was it? Ie. bells...ring bridge..etc Dale S. Erwin www.Erwinspiano.com Original Message----- From: David Love <davidlovepianos at comcast.net> That type of cutoff (on the B) is relatively ineffective in stiffening the longest ribs in the piano compared to what Ron has pictured. There are other types of cutoffs as well that don't necessarily get clamped down to the bracing (as you see in Ron's photo) but are more substantial in size such (than the B connector) as are often found on a Bluthner pianos. There the cutoff bar is approximately 2" x 2" made of spruce, maple or something (can't recall) but adheres only to the rim at each end while riding above the bracing. That, I assume would be more effective than what you see on the B but less than were the cutoff attached to the bracing creating, in effect, the working rim of the piano. There are lots of different approaches to cutoff bars, some more substantial than others, and different makers have their own philosophy including not using them at all. It's interesting to note that I was looking at a 1970s? Yamaha G3 the other day that employed a full bass cutoff bar. Curiously, the C series pianos don't use them yet are considered to be a more refined model. That G3 still sounded pretty good, all things considered. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Ron Nossaman Sent: Monday, November 08, 2010 5:24 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Wood over soundboard ribs On 11/8/2010 6:00 AM, limhseng at gmail.com wrote: > Hi List > This NY Steinway B has a piece of wood over 5 soundboard ribs on the bass side. What is it for and what does it do? > Thanks. > Lim It's an attempt to compensate for the too long ribs, rather than having installed the cutoff bar that should have been there. Ron N -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101108/d5b58175/attachment.htm>
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