[pianotech] SWELL

Nicholas Gravagne ngravagne at gmail.com
Sat Mar 19 12:27:17 MDT 2011


Wow. The bars in the photo are quite long. These would be much shorter had
they been configured rectangular to the panel grain. I have seen this on
some Amecian pianos such as early vintage Chickerings. Given the extra
length of these bars a measurable rise-per-length for a given radius would
be relatively high. What is your sense of this? And I never heard of a
cutoff bar termed a deafening member; the cutoff bar in the photo does not
seem at all radical in its limiting effect given what seems to be enormous
real estate. The bars appear thin in width, any data handy as to their
depths? Any other thoughts about the belly design in general?

On Sat, Mar 19, 2011 at 9:51 AM, John Delacour <JD at pianomaker.co.uk> wrote:

>
> As I have said, the piano that has this quality in the greatest degree was
> a Brinsmead 6'3" from about 1900.  It is many years since I have seen this
> piano but last year I bought one that is identical.  The hammers on this
> piano are far too soft and it will be impossible to judge it until I have
> re-strung it.
>
> I also have a 5'5" Brinsmead of exactly the same vintage and general
> design.
>
> And I also mentioned that this week I took delivery of a 9'1" Brinsmead
> concert grand from about 1870, and that, although this piano promises to be
> a truly amazing machine and is not in bad playing order, it does not exhibit
> 'swell' in any sensible degree. Here is a picture I took of the soundboard
> as it arrived.
>
>
>  Note well the curved deafening or cut-off.  Now the boards on the 1900
> pianos differ in several ways, most notably a) the bars are channeled and b)
> there is no deafened corner.  I will take some pictures when I get a chance.
>
> JD
>
>


-- 
Nick Gravagne, RPT
AST Mechanical Engineering
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