1 string, 2 strings, 3 strings or more

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Delacour" <JD@Pianomaker.co.uk>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>; <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: September 19, 2001 5:27 PM
Subject: Re: 1 string, 2 strings, 3 strings or more


> I agree.  The B scale is extraordinary and yet of all models it is the B
> that gets musicians raving.

I agree it get musicians raving...it is the one scale we hear the most
complaints about!


>
> The bass scale that results from this
> arrangement is also very unusual.  The string scaling has been modified
> slightly over the last 120 years and it certainly follows a certain
> rationale, the percentage strain on the core wire being remarkably level
> almost down to the bottom, but owing to the  too low location of the
break,
> the tension falls off towards note 20 to a very unusual level.  To have
> only 10 singles even on a piano of this length is more than obsolete -
it's
> archaic, and yet 10 was the magic number which had to work for the
> Vertgrand, the B, the A the 0 (nought, not oh) etc. I'm sure this would
> have changed soon if Theodore had stayed around.

A synopsis of the complaints we hear on this scale yields the following: the
bass section is 'tubby' (the word we most often hear applied), the
bass/tenor cross-over is acoustically and musically awkward, the mid-tenor
is wonderful, the upper-tenor/lower-treble is percussive and weak and the
high-treble is just weak. Still, the piano continues to sell...why? I can
only speculate. It is certainly one of the most attractive pianos of its
size ever built (it has a Visual Bulk Factor of just 1.1). It has some of
the glamor of the Model D appearing in the local concert hall rubbed
liberally all over it. And let's not forget the might and power of the
Steinway Marketing Organization which is one of the two best in the
industry. Of these (and this is just based on my own informal survey over
the years) I'd say that most of its success is attributable to its wonderful
appearance and its successful marketing.



> >
> >I expect you mean cm in the above. And I disagree. Many, if not most,
modern
> >pianos are running upwards of 52 mm at C-88. Many are in the 54 to 56 mm
> >range with no long-term undesirable side effects. My own standard is C-88
=
> >54 mm.
>
> To give 165 lb. on a 13 wire.  Well, that's not at all unreasonable, I
> agree, and of course I come across pianos with 60-62 mm. whose strings
> haven't YET snapped, though luckily the English makers responsible for
them
> have -- the last factory I was called in to (recently defunct) had no idea
> even what they intended the length to be ("give or take an eighth").
>
> But the question is, will C88 at 50 mm. and 140 lb. sound any worse or
> noticeably weaker or be significantly more liable to pitch alteration?
Put
> another way, do tuners have problems with the top treble of Steinway Model
> Bs in concert halls?

Yes. How else do you explain the massive amounts of lacquer and other
herculean attempts to harden and 'brighten' the treble of these pianos. The
speaking length of C-88 sets the stage for the scaling down from there and
most of these scales are just too short.



>
> What I'm questioning, of course, is the pursuit of
> equal tension as an indisputable good.

Well, if it's not indisputable, it's certainly an improvement over the
original.



>
> I was brought up from infancy with
> a 1905 Lipp 5'9" grand which simply would not go out of tune.  Year after
> year the tuner would come and leave complaining there was nothing to
> do!  Years later I analysed the scale of this  piano and discovered it had
> an extraordinarily even scale with tensions about 160 lb. in the steel, 14
> singles running from 220 to 300 lb. and 14 bichords at about 200 lbs, in
> brief it is an excellent model in very many ways.  Now tuners I speak to
> agree that the Lipp stands like a rock, but if there is one piano they
> mention in the same class for stability, it's the Blüthner Style 7, which
> is scaled according to quite different criteria with no semblance of equal
> tension, 18 or 20 notes in a run strung with one gauge etc. etc.. in short
> what appears to be an empiricist's dream.  The only things the two pianos
> have in common is good half-round top bearings and a firm pin (the
Blüthner
> has an open plank covered with a thin brass plate and the Lipp has a
bushed
> plate).

Tuning stability is a whole other issue, having less to do with the scaling
and more to do with the structural design and the soundboard/rib design.

Del
Delwin D Fandrich
Piano Designer & Builder
Hoquiam, Washington  USA
E.mail:  pianobuilders@olynet.com
Web Site:  www.pianobuilders.com