[CAUT] rescale bass strings

[Richard Brekne]

Hi Mark.

This is exactly the kind of point I tried to underline. Scaling 
priorities clearly vary according to the kind of sound results the piano 
is meant to have.  A "correct" scaling is much less a matter of 
following any one given set of rules as it is how well the designer 
succeeded in establishing the kind of sound she was attempting. We loose 
track of this kind of thing too often me thinks in all our enthusiasm 
for new knowledge, much of which may be new for us as individuals but is 
old trail for the industry at large.  I suppose an analogy can be drawn 
with tuning stretch preferences and / or temperaments.  A good tuning is 
one in which the tuner accomplished well what she set out to do. Not any 
particular bearing model or stretch amount.

Cheers
RicB



        John Delacour wrote:
         >
         > If by modifying the scale you can achieve less audible
        breaks, then
         > that is clearly an improvement in anybody's book

    Not so fast...When Mason & Hamlin  first moved to Haverhill, MA, the
    model BB's that they were building  included several unisons of wound
    bichords in the tenor. This feature was dropped soon after and the
    scale
    reverted to plain trichords in this section. When I expressed my
    surprise I was told that "While [the rescaling] was technically correct
    it was not embraced by some of the end customers". I heard from another
    source that one or more of the cellists at the BSO had objected to the
    timbre of the wound bichords when playing chamber music.

    - Mark Dierauf