[pianotech] Brambach to rebuild?

[Terry Farrell]

Hi Del - I looked at those pictures and one thing I noted what that  
the bass section had a short backscale, the bass bridge has an apron,  
and the tenor hitch pins are very close to the bass bridge. All  
suggesting to me that it would be rather difficult to move the bass  
bridge forward much if any at all. Seems to me that even if you cut a  
redesigned soundboard free at the foot, although some improvement in  
tone might be had, the short backscale would still tend to cause that  
nasty constrained nasal tone in the bass. Would it not be better to  
find a different old no-name clunker that might better lend itself to  
redesign improvements?

Looking again at the photo of the bass bridge area, I see there is an  
apron of plate iron forward of the tenor hitch pins (in front of the  
bass bridge). If that is full-thickness, I suppose you could move  
those pins forward a bit - assuming more notes would be destined for a  
transition bridge. Still seems a bit cramped in that area though, and  
my guess is that the apron thins. But then again, I suppose all this  
is a problem common to most small grands. But perhaps some lend  
themselves to improvements more that others (like this one)?

Terry Farrell

On Nov 12, 2010, at 1:41 AM, Delwin D Fandrich wrote:

> Were I a little younger and a little less busy I would snap that up  
> in a
> heartbeat. Then I would redesign and remanufacture the thing with a  
> new
> board, bridges, action--the whole thing. Everything I could think  
> of. Then
> I'd keep it as a demo.
>
> When you do all of these things on a Steinway or a Baldwin and the  
> results
> turn out better than the original folks look at it and play it, nod,  
> and
> say, "Well, of course it sounds good; after all it's a Steinway or a
> Baldwin." When you do these things to a Brambach they are kind of  
> forced to
> give you at least a little bit of credit for knowing what you are  
> doing.
>
> ddf
>
> Delwin D Fandrich
> Piano Design & Fabrication
> 620 South Tower Avenue
> Centralia, Washington 98531 USA
> del at fandrichpiano.com
> ddfandrich at gmail.com
> Phone  360.736.7563