Steve, I'm the new guy here at the University, so I haven't had much time to really pull the piano apart and see what's in there. The previous tech never messed with it. Someone has restrung it with new pins and there are relatively new hammers in there, and appears to have had the old ivories replaced with newer ivory. It does have some sort of double escapement (again, I haven't pulled the action so I can't describe it, but hammers are mounted so that the flange is towards player). Straight strung w/ each string individually tied at the hitch pins, the bass and tenor sections have agraffes mounted into an extended portion of the pin block (wouldn't that be an interesting addition to the recent discussions of broken agraffes! Lord, PLEASE, no!). Pin block is angled down so that you have to tune either left-handed or with hammer back towards you in the treble. It does have an iron plate. I recently was asked to tune it for a 5 minute recital for the donors, so I brought the treble up to the bass (around C440, which the donors had no clue about but the prof playing it sure did). It's in the library so I'm not really able to spend any time with it. Suits me, really. I've got 129 other pianos which get used that I need to be working with and limited time. They're just interested in knowing a little about what they've been given. Serial #3244 or at least that's the number stamped on the soundboard emblem. Dealing with the older instruments is a new thing for me, so I guess other than what I've described, that's all I would know to tell you. Thanks for helping! Jeff >Jeff, > Ernst Irmler took over the family business in 1854, but seems to >have been succeeded by his brother Otto in 1857, so it may be that the >piano is from that three or four year period. What's the technology like? > >Steve > > >On Tue, 17 Nov 1998, Jeff Tanner wrote: > >> Hello new friends, >> I am a newcomer to the chatline. I have a "historical instrument" question >> I want to pick your brains about. We were donated an Ernst Irmler piano >> earlier this year but can't seem to find out any solid information on the >> piano. The soundboard emblem reveals that the instrument was built in >> Liepzig, Germany. But even though we have the serial number it is of no >> use in that we can not find any reference to the builder. The limited >> information we do have is that the atlases have a listing of "Irmler", but >> do not separate them (apparently, there were several Irmler piano >> builders). Our most informative resource is a colleague of one of our >> piano professors, who apparently has access to information of several >> Irmlers, but not Ernst. >> >> I am most interested in finding out what standard of pitch (tension) the >> piano would have been designed for, but other interesting tidbits would >> also be helpful, as the piano is displayed in the music library as more of >> a showpiece anyway. >> >> Thanks for any help! >> Jeff Tanner >> >> Jeff Tanner, Piano Technician >> School of Music >> University of South Carolina >> Columbia, SC 29208 >> (803)-777-4392 (phone) >> (803)-777-6508 (fax) >> >> >> > >Steve Brady, RPT >University of Washington >Seattle, WA > > > Jeff Tanner, Piano Technician School of Music University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208 (803)-777-4392 (phone) (803)-777-6508 (fax)
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