I'll try this again. I sent this earlier today but the electronic gods apparently didn't like it.. Terry, sounds like basically the same piano. This one was built in 1917. I wrote the following elsewhere about this piano: Quote: For some time I have been curious about this wire. Finally just the right piano came along and I've been able to actually test some. The piano is a 161 cm (5' 3.5") Everett grand. Nicely, and very simply, built. But its most appealing criteria was its scaling; originally it was pretty horrific, topping out above 210 lbf on either side of the tenor/treble break then dropping down to 89 lbf at the lowest note on the tenor bridge (A#-26). Still, I thought, the little thing had potential. Besides, it is just under 55" wide and has-to my eye, at least-a very appealing shape. The original soundboard panel was fairly thin, the ribbing on the light side and the bass bridge would be easily moveable. I did not want to replace the soundboard-one has to draw the line somewhere on these experiments and I didn't see how I could explain the cost and time of a new board to my long-suffering wife! So, we scraped the board clean of old finish, epoxy-coated it as per our usual practice, cleaned up the bridges and installed new bridge pins, moved the bass bridge forward some 40 mm (1.6"), installed a new pinblock and set the frame for relatively light string bearing and put the whole thing back together. The damper action was rebuilt and new Tokiwa damper felts have been installed. The keys and action have been rebuilt and it now has small (so-called 14 lb) Ronsen/Wurzen hammers. The new scale has nothing over 155 lbf of tension through the tenor and mostly they average between 145 and 150 lbs. (There are only three frame sections in this piano and the average tension through the tenor section is calculates out to 144 lbs. The total scale tension is just 34,760 lbf-quite low for any "modern" piano.) Except for the lowest seven notes which drop rather precipitously to 98 lbf of tension-not quite as low as the original but still quite low for a "modern" piano. The new bi-chord bass strings [again, part of the experiment] also average around 150 to 155 lbs. Ordinarily when rebuilding a piano of this size and type I would have converted the lowest few notes in the tenor to bi-chord wrapped strings-probably the lowest six or seven in this case-and placed them on a separate transition bridge. (The bass/tenor break in this piano is between A-25 and A#-26.) But this was an experiment so I left them as plain tri-chords. The sound of the completed piano was pretty much as anticipated; after voicing the hammers down a bit the tone quality through the bass and from about E-32 was sweet and dynamic and quite powerful enough for any normal room where a piano of this size might be placed. In fact, the consensus among most pianists is that this piano has more useable power than the new 175 cm (5' 9") Asian-built piano sitting next to it. Even the low bass comes pretty close to the clarity and power of the newer, longer piano. Not all was sweetness and light, however. The age-old problem, of course, was the nasal, tubby sound of those lowest seven or eight notes in the tenor. And here is where the rest of the experiment comes in; in two separate steps I replaced the wire in the lowest eight unisons with Paulello wire. The first step was to replace the string of the lowest eight unisons with Paulello Type M wire. After installing the wire and tuning the piano I, and a variety of folks who had been given the opportunity to play the piano both before and after the change were asked for comments. The audible differences at this stage were, if any at all, nominal. Not having any prior experience with the wire I wasn't sure just what to expect but I didn't think I could hear any significant change. Several others thought they might be hearing some difference but it wasn't significant. The next step was to replace the lowest four unisons with Type O wire. There is now Type O wire on notes A#-26 through C#-29 and Type M wire on D-30 through F-33. Now the timbral change became clearly discernable. The tone of those lowest tenor notes is noticeably less tubby and nasal sounding. The bass/tenor transition is noticeably smoother. As well, I could bring the hammers on those lowest tenor notes back up a bit without having them sounding obnoxious. The experiment continued: even with the increased backscale length I still wasn't quite happy with the lowest bass notes-the drop-off was a bit faster than I wanted-so I added about 75 grams of mass under the soundboard right at the low end of the bass bridge. This improved the sustain of the lowest bass notes some. I also thought I could now do some better with the bass/tenor break so I added two short (approx. 250 mm long), intermediate ribs under the soundboard, one right at end of the tenor bridge and another further up between the next two ribs. Both are parallel to the original ribs. I'm not sure if I'll be making any more changes to the piano or not. Except for those lowest three or four notes in the low tenor I'm pretty happy with the sound of the piano at this stage. I do need to clean up the voicing a bit but, other than that, I'm not sure I can make it much better. The bass-for a piano of this size-is quite clear and articulate. The bass/tenor transition is smooth and virtually unnoticeable during normal play-it is only when played harder and chromatically that their sound becomes obnoxious. The upper tenor and treble are clear and bright, while avoiding the harshness found in so many pianos today. The whole piano has a warmth and musicality that I find quite enjoyable. At this stage the question that remains is simply; do I want to sell it or keep it? ddf Addendum: So far my analysis of this wire has all been by ear. I made the wire change and listened. I was careful to change only one parameter at a time-i.e., the wire and nothing else-but I have not done any kind of spectrum analysis work. That will come later. Sometime down the road I plan to mount test samples to my dual mono-chord where I will be able to make direct, side-by-side, comparisons between the various types of wire. It should be interesting. End quote The original location of the bass bridge was back a bit from where it sounds like it is in your piano. I relocated it and it is now probably about like yours-I'm not at the piano just now but the backscale at A-1 is probably around 110 mm. I wonder if that was a design change on mine or simply a mistake-there was quite a gap between the bridge pins and the start of the wraps on the original bass strings. Either way, it's happy where it is now. But I'm still not all that happy with the low tenor and will probably replace the lowest notes with Type 1 or Type 2 wire. Just to see what happens. I have to do some recording and measuring on the configuration I have right now first. All I have to date is empirical observation; and we all know how fallible that can be. A couple of folks who participate on Pianotech have seen and heard this piano; perhaps they will comment on how it plays and sounds to them. 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 From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Terry Farrell Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2010 4:50 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: [pianotech] Little Everett Grands - was: Heller bass strings Gotta change the subject - after writing this post I looked at the subject and wondered what on earth does this have to do with Heller bass strings! Del: what year/size is your little Everett? I also have one that has been sitting around waiting years for some attention. Made in 1900 and is about 5'4", if I recall correctly. Interesting forward string terminations on it (three section scale) - the treble section is your typical capo style, however the tenor and bass have a iron ridge in the plate - sorta like the typical upright bass V-bar - but then there is a pressure bar on the bridge side of the forward termination V-bar. Sorry for the hazy photo below, but the piano is stored in amongst several others and this shot is in the dark using telephoto from the one angle you can see the area between two other pianos..... When I have thought of re-doing (gut/redesign/remanufacture) this piano, I was thinking along the same lines as your thinking with the "Brambach". Surely, NO piano without agraffes in the bass and tenor could EVER sound nice! And of course, NO piano that doesn't have at least a four-section plate/string-scale could EVER sound good! What fun proving people wrong! I am also impressed with the generous original bass backscale on this piano: about 115 mm on A0 and 165 mm on the highest bass note. Going along with this line of thinking (turning the "worst" piano in the world into a real piano), I realize that Brambach does in deed have the NAME, but surely they don't have pressure bars for forward terminations! Heck, this Everett is more of an upright than a grand, and EVERYONE KNOWS that ANY grand piano sounds better than ANY upright! Right? ;-) The low tenor has quite a hockey-stick end on it (long, slow curve), but the plate has a good shelf up by the pressure bar, so if, when adding a transition bridge, one wanted to move the forward termination toward the bridge for optimal strike point, I should think it quite possible. Piano really has some interesting positive design features. I love the trapwork - three sprung wooden levers - very simple, clean and work like a charm. Tuning pin array is simple and cleaner than just about any I've seen. Nice HD butcher-block keybed. Rim bracing is heavy and straight forward/back - like a Bosendorfer. Just seems like it has so much going for it and so much potential. If I remember correctly, it has a Wessell, Nickel & Gross action (but I may be mistaken). This piano was built in Boston. When did Everett move from Boston to the eastern shore of Lake Michigan? Does yours share any of these features? Terry Farrell -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101116/e41cf009/attachment-0001.htm> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: IMG_1707xx.JPG Type: image/jpeg Size: 105502 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101116/e41cf009/attachment-0003.jpeg> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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