Hi Conrad, Joe, Richard, What I was thinking about when saying "a piece for a museum" was that such an old Bluthner has certainly a historical value for a museum. I to would prefer to get such an instrument into playing condition. (thanks Conrad for the kind words) In our museum (and I suppose in most) you have the pros and cons concerning the fact that such instruments would be used for concerts. In Paris (Cité de la Musique) they have limited the playing time on each instrument at XX hours a year, depending of the state and fragility. Here we had to stop playing on a Stein pianoforte from 1789 because there where mecanical parts wich were starting to break. Of course on such a rare piano they want us as much as possible to preserve the original parts. To avoid this in Paris they have made copys from actions for some pianos and put the original aside. There again you have the pros and the cons. (musicians often prefere to play on originals) What we try to do when we want to restore a historical piano is to try to find another identical instrument and restore the one that has the best state while keeping the other one for historical reasons. For the moment I'm restoring an Erard square from 1805 wich is remarkably well preserved compared to the identical one from 1804. It has an action with double pilots and no escapement. As there is verry little known about how to regulate those I'd like to ask if someone has ever regulated this type of actions before? Maybe Joe (square) Garett??? I suppose the most squares you've seen had an action with escapement? What I'd like to know is what was the key dip and the play between the two pilots. Made some experiments and it works about but it could certainly be better. It is funny to see this primitive action from Erard when you see what he invented only 15 years later, yes, the modern grand double escapement action!!! Pierre Gevaert Belgium ----- Original Message ----- From: "Conrad Hoffsommer" <hoffsoco@luther.edu> To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 1:35 AM Subject: Re: Early Julius Bluthner > At 17:43 1/31/2005, you wrote: > >Pierre, (dehydrated Frenchman<G>), said: "Looks like a piece for a museum!!" > > > >Pierre, > >Yeah. Right. So it can sit, w/o ever being played and just rots! NOT! That > >would surely be a waste, IMO. > > > >Joe Garrett, R.P.T. > >Captain, Tool Police > >Squares R I > > > Not at Pierre's museum! Many of those on exhibit and also in storage > awaiting their turn _are_ playable and _ are_ played. You really should > get to MIM and see the work Pierre and the others do there. > > > > > > Conrad Hoffsommer > > Early to rise: early to bed; > Makes a man healthy, and socially dead. > > > _______________________________________________ > pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives > >
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