Need a Mason Expert

[Delwin D Fandrich]

A440A@aol.com wrote:
> 
> Greetings all,
> 
>     Somebody tell me something.  I finally got the customer with the lousy
> sounding M&H to agree to new bass strings. The bottom end on this piano
> always sounded bad.    It is a model B, and my question is this.
>     The bass windings all stop 1 inch from either end of the speaking length.
>  This seems excessive, and I wonder if  that is why this piano has never
> sounded like I am familiar with M&H pianos sounding like.
>       Should I should ask Mapes to add 1/2 inch on either end?  I don't do my
> own scaling, but it seems it will require more tension to reach pitch this
> way,  and I wonder if I should replace with what is there.  This piano is #
> 58,000 and appears to have been made for installation of a repro action,
> which was never installed.
> 
> Thanks,
> Ed Foote
----------

Ed,

Increasing the wrap by 1/2" on either end will alter inharmonicity
somewhat, but it won't improve the sound.

Properly rescaling the bass section of a piano will ALWAYS improve the
performance of that piano. Actually, properly rescaling the whole piano
will
always improve the performance of the whole piano and is much preferable
to
doing just the bass section, but doing just the bass will still yield
very good results. Some can be improved more than others, but there will
always be some improvement. (There may be one or two "modern" pianos
that can't be improved much, but I don't know of any—and I've looked at
quite a few scales from pianos in current production.) 

You don't necessarily need "more tension," in fact you probably don't,
but you won't know for sure until you measure and evaluate the scale
that is currently there. (Or have it evaluated by someone who is
familiar with good stringing scale
practices.)

I cringe when I hear of changes being made to stringing scales blindly,
without a knowledge of what is already there. More damage than good can
be done really fast.

—ddf