1 string, 2 strings, 3 strings or more

[John Delacour]

At 11:54 18/09/01 -0700, Delwin D Fandrich wrote:

>While I acknowledge that many pianos do have the drop-off you mention, it is
>certainly not desirable. Most of these (obsolete) scales do much better with
>several bi-chord wrapped unisons in the tenor section ideally placed on a
>separate bridge.

Interesting.  On the one hand you bemoan (as I do) the characterless 
uniformity of modern piano tone and on the other you talk of "obsolete 
scales" (which I think would include all Steinway's grand scales?) and yet 
you talk of an ideal solution lying in a transition bridge, which was quite 
common in the 1870s - 80s and universally discarded in Europe before the 
turn of the century, roughly speaking.  I'm not disagreeing with you but 
I'd like to know what classes as an obsolete scale in your view? For 
example, would Klauss Fenner's ubiquitous scales be classed as modern and 
therefore productive of a tone quality that is more desirable than that of 
the great pre-1914 pianos?

As to the fall-off in tension at the extreme treble, obsolete or not, I 
would always aim for this; not to do so is asking for breakages in view of 
the doubtful quality of modern wire. To expect a No 13 wire to support 
170-180 lbs. is, I think, optimistic, and I would set the length of note 88 
at 4.8 - 5.0 mm. the tension to rise with the gauges to an average 165-70 
lbs for the remainder of the steel scale.  As to the lowering of tension at 
the other end of the long bridge, you seem to be saying this is a sign of 
obsolete scaling and that seems to mean that most modern 6' grands have 
obsolete scaling, since the only ways to avoid this are a) to shift notes 
onto the bass bridge, which would cause even worse problems or b) to 
provide a transition bridge as you say, which  has not been considered 
desirable for over 100 years -- and that gives this solution  a pretty good 
seal of obsoletion, even if it's a good solution, which I don't 
doubt.  I've seen uprights with 5 bridges, all at different levels.. 
there's something that _certainly_ won't return!

>....I would be very upset if the bass/tenor transition were unsatisfactory 
>even on a 150 cm (4' 11") scale. Especially if I get to start from scratch.

Of course.  I agree.  It was only the maker of the 9'6" piano that thought 
otherwise

>So far I have found no rationale for the use of tri-chord wrapped strings on
>either bridge on any scale of any length.

Presumably the rationale is not only to aid the transition but to produce a 
certain quality in that section of the piano.  One of my favourite 
instruments of all time is the old (ca. 1899) Steinway 6' grand.  The bass 
bridge and scaling on this piano up to note 20 are almost identical to the 
6'2" model A that succeeded it, but as you know there is then a transition 
bridge holding two covered bichords and 7 covered trichords.  The A has 
only two bridges with 5 covered bichords on the long bridge.  There are 
other differences of course, not least the fine quality of the soundboard 
on the older one, but personally I find the 6' piano magic and the 6'2 
relatively uninteresting.  It's a while since I have had my hands on 
either, but I think this is a case where covered trichords actually served 
a purpose and were not a mere fudge.  August Förster until quite recently, 
and maybe still, used several trichord break notes on their uprights but 
this always struck me as either a bit of show or a necessary fudge to hide 
bad scaling.

JD