Doug, I have just the item for you. A Rippen back w/ Aluminium plate, board/bridges, strung. 40"h Having given the fold-down action/keyboard to Debbie Legg, the back NEEDS a place to go. PERFECT for the your project. Only thing, it's here on the East Coast. I can prep it for shipping and get it to the freight dock, (we'll pass the plate for shipping for everyone to reap the benefits of your samplings. :-) It's a light-wieght compared to most, this piano was designed to be portable hence the fold-down keyboard. Full perimiter plate, no back posts, just plate, board, strings. The block is segmented like the Yamaha elec. grands. I can pack it up this week and send it on it's way since I have to go to that same freight dock to pickup a piano coming in for refinishing. I can call for a rough price on shipping on Monday. Don't miss this opportunity to gain a valuable testing device and clear-up a corner of my shop ! Anxiously awaiting your reply, Jon Page Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass. (jpage@capecod.net) PS Makes a nice wall sculpture too. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At 12:52 PM 8/28/98 -0700, you wrote: >Del, > >You wouldn't happen to have an outline of a medium sized sound board and >bridge in electronic format would you? >Don't know if you saw my post yesterday, but I'm doing some modeling on >string inharmonicity. Some time in the future, I'll be wanting to add a >soundboard with bridge and look at string tail length/angle, soundboard mode >shapes and stuff like that. >Anyway, if you have a file available (dwg, mi or dxf) it sure would save me >a bunch time measuring... > >doug richards >San Jose, CA > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Delwin D Fandrich [SMTP:pianobuilders@olynet.com] >> Sent: Friday, August 28, 1998 10:47 AM >> To: pianotech@ptg.org >> Subject: Re: Single Treble Bridge >> >> >> >> Tom Cole wrote: >> >> > Del, >> > >> > You discussed, in a recent post, the need for a separate tenor bridge >> > for wound strings and that the speaking lengths should be an extension >> > of the bass section. It occurred to me today that Steinway tried that >> > over 100 years ago and abandoned the idea. I also have heard of someone >> > who has converted the early model As to a single treble bridge design, >> > saying that it's an improvement. >> > >> > So I'm confused and would like to hear your opinions on this conundrum. >> > >> > Tom >> >> -------------------------------------------------- >> >> Tom, >> >> Over the years Steinway has abandoned a lot of good design ideas while >> clinging >> tenaciously to a few bad ones. Obviously, Steinway builds some excellent >> pianos, but they are certainly not the last word in piano design. Nor am >> I. >> Nor is anyone else that I know of. So, with that in mind... >> >> Not all of the ideas that were tried out and abandoned 100 years ago -- >> whether >> by Steinway or by anyone else -- were bad ideas. Sometimes ideas came >> along >> before their time and had to wait for appropriate materials to come along. >> Sometimes manufacturing technology was not developed adequately to take >> full >> advantage of an idea. Other times a good idea was simply executed poorly. >> This >> was the case with the short bridge on the three-bridge Model A. I'm >> assuming >> this is the piano you're referring to in your post. >> >> There were three problems with this specific design: >> 1) The string lengths in the short bridge section were too short. I >> assume >> this was done so that tri-chord wrapped strings could be used. This, of >> course, >> was the second problem. >> 2) Tri-chord wrapped strings were used. I have yet to see a scale >> using >> tri-chord wrapped strings that I really liked. >> 3) The soundboard and ribs did not acoustically tie the three >> separate >> sections together. In part this was a consequence of the >> compression-crowned >> soundboard design. It is very difficult -- nearly impossible -- to alter >> the >> elasticity characteristics of a compression-crowned soundboard to >> adequately >> blend the several disparate sections of the scale together. >> >> There are some real problems trying to redesign things like this on an >> existing >> piano. I am also interested in loudspeaker design. The bass/tenor >> transition >> of the piano scale is much like the crossover design between a woofer and >> a >> mid-range speaker -- fairly simple in concept, much more difficult in >> actual >> practice. We struggle with these issues every day since nearly every >> piano that >> comes to our shop is sent here for some level of redesign along with its >> remanufacture. We are limited by the original string scale layout -- >> i.e., >> action center spacing and their sweep -- and the original configuration of >> the >> plate. >> >> In the case of the three-bridge Model A, the compass of the bass section >> should >> have been much greater. In a piano of this size the bass section should >> encompass at least 27 notes (instead of 20). The short tri-chord steel >> strings >> often found at the low end of the tenor bridge have a tubby tone that >> simply >> cannot be voiced out with hammer work. Even then there should have been a >> few >> unisons of wrapped bi-chords terminated on a separate bridge on the tenor >> side >> of the bass/tenor plate break. Done properly, this short bridge could -- >> and >> probably should -- have been tied into the long tenor bridge. >> >> I have also worked with the idea of a single treble bridge on these >> scales, but >> I'd not go so far as to call them much of an improvement. They were, >> perhaps, >> less bad. The real improvement comes with a new short bridge using >> properly >> scaled bi-chord wrapped strings. Along with a soundboard and rib system >> designed to bring the three separate sections -- the low end of the long >> tenor >> bridge, the short cross-over bridge and the high end of the bass bridge -- >> together. Even then, there remains a serious discontinuity between the >> lengths >> of the low tenor strings and the upper bass strings that cannot be >> corrected >> without building a new plate. >> >> It is really much easier to start with a clean computer screen and design >> the >> thing from scratch. When doing this all of the various factors can be >> balanced >> out much more easily. Much has been learned about piano design in the >> past 100 >> years. It's just that little of this knowledge has been incorporated into >> the >> pianos of today. >> >> Rather than answer your question, I've probably just posed a bunch of new >> ones. >> Such is life. Isn't it wonderful? >> >> Regards, >> >> Del >> >> "If it ain't broke -- break it. Then build it better." > >
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