[pianotech] Broadwood Barless Grand

[Delwin D Fandrich]

I'm not saying I don't like the idea--if nothing else they were beautiful to
look at--but I think I'd have gone about it a bit differently. With a little
creative thought the action could have been constructed in a way that would
have made the gap unnecessary. The bass/tenor break could have been made a
little smoother but playing around with the string angles some. I also think
it would have been interesting to play around with a flat-strung version of
the idea. Flat-strung designs take some effort to get them to develop a
nice, clean bass but it can be done. This would make it possible to develop
an absolutely seamless bass-to-tenor transition. And it would have made the
whole thing even more striking looking. Ah, well, it's unlikely anyone is
going to do anything like this again. Too bad, it could be a nice niche
market for somebody.

ddf

Delwin D Fandrich
Piano Design & Fabrication
6939 Foothill Court SW, Olympia, Washington 98512 USA
Phone  360.515.0119 — Cell  360.388.6525
del at fandrichpiano.com — ddfandrich at gmail.com

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of David Boyce
Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2011 12:04 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Broadwood Barless Grand


Del, you are right of course about the "jog" in the long bridge and the
breaks in stringing which Will also commented on.  Your point about "why
bother" seems an entirely fair one!  But it's interesting at any rate, that
Broadwood had the financial confidence in those days to play about with
these design experiments. I was fascinated by the Broadwood upright with
bridge agraffes I encountered a few months ago (i posted pics here).  They
certainly weren't scared to try stuff out!

Best regards,

David Boyce.