[CAUT] rescale bass strings

[John Delacour]

At 20:57 +0100 23/3/08, Richard Brekne wrote:

>...Its probably a good idea to remember that by definition you are 
>not going to make any improvements per'se... only alterations.

Well, with larger pianos it is certainly possible to change the 
character of the bass, and whether or not the change is an 
improvement is certainly a matter of taste and opinion, as you say. 
On the other hand there are scales that are simply misconceived and 
which, when the faults are pointed out to any discriminating hearer, 
no matter what their general preferences may be, will be recognised 
to be faulty.

If by modifying the scale you can achieve less audible breaks, then 
that is clearly an improvement in anybody's book, and if you can stop 
a note barking by changing the design, so is that.  Any scale that 
requires the steel to exceed the maximum safe tension is also to be 
redesigned.   It would be difficult to find anyone to prefer the 
sound of the over-tight strings to the sound of strings working 
within safe limits, I can assure you.

I quite agree that to impose one's personal preferences onto all 
scales no matter what the fundamental character of the piano is, is 
to court controversy.  For example I personally detest the sound of a 
Bösendorfer and in particular the bass of a Bösendorfer but when I 
make strings for one of these beasts I follow the essence of the 
Bösendorfer design, because somebody who has chosen a Bösendorfer 
doesn't want it sounding like a Steinway or a Blüthner.  There are 
faults in some of Bösendorfer's scales, as there are in most of 
Steinway's, but these can be corrected without changing the overall 
character of the tone, the balance, the staccato response etc.

Since this thread began with a question about a George Steck, I'll 
tell you a story of a well-meaning but inexperienced string-maker 
early in his string-making career -- namely me.  I had an order from 
the Blüthner workshops in London, all of whose strings I was by then 
making, for a set of strings for a Steck 5' grand (Aeolian Steck, I 
imagine).  When I measured up those horrible stiff strings and 
calculated those awful tensions, I thought, let's make a set for this 
piano designed like the nice Blüthner 5' Style 4.  Within a week I 
had a phone call to say that those strings for the Steck are just 
flapping away and making hardly any sound.

Luckily I learned that lesson early, and since then I am most careful 
with any "baby grand" that comes my way to stick pretty closely to 
the type of scaling that the maker used.  The longer the piano is, 
the more scope one has for changing the scale or changing the 
character of the bass, but still one needs to be careful ...

... I have recently bought a very nice Brinsmead 5'7" grand from 
about 1905.  As soon as I'd got it I calculated the existing scale 
and wondered if I could get a little more colour from the bass, which 
is very strong in fundamental tone.  Brinsmead's scales, 
incidentally, are very well designed.  Note 25, the top bichord, was 
made on a No. 20 core; I decided to see what it would sound like with 
an 18, which would be more what you'd expect on other pianos.  It was 
obvious as soon as I'd fitted the pair that this would not do at all 
-- the balance of the harmonics was quite wrong and the bass strung 
is such a way would have been quite out of character with the piano 
as a whole.  This Brinsmead was designed to be very strong in 
fundamental and that's the way it has to stay.  If I wanted it 
different, I'd need to fit a re-designed soundboard.

JD