Brash Failure

[Gevaert Pierre]

  _____  

De : pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] De la part
de Joseph Garrett
Envoyé : dimanche 20 août 2006 18:28
À : pianotech
Objet : lRe: Brash Failure

 

Pierre said: "A small Erard Square from 1804 that I?ve been restoring this
year (with the 

original sound board) has a nice tone and a long sustain."

 

Hmmm? Because these instruments have a very low tension, the "tone" will be
"nice" to your ear, IMO. Define "a long sustain",please. Most instruments of
that period had little or no sustain, in my experience.

I meant  a singing and clear tone (also in the upper treble ) Compared to
our 5 years old Walter copy (pianoforte) the sustain is clearly better.  A
long sustain is not a good definition, sorry, I meant that the sound lasts
for a certain time, enough to give a singing tone. 

"It is a verry small soundboard and the string pressure moved the board

downward causing a dip around the bridge."

 

That is definately a "failure" of the wood. Especially, since those
instruments had/have little or no downbearing to begin with, in my
experience. The 1805 Clementi, that I care for, has a much worse soundboard
scenario....it is buckled in the "killer octave" area. It has almost zero
sustain and is pretty "thumpy". Definately  failure of wood structure, IMO.

 As<the depressiojn in the soundboard is quite deep it must have had
downbearing when de board was new. The string coils are still at about 1 cm
from the pinblock.

"Except for this the piano was remarquably well preserved (wich is not often

the case) and I suppose for that reason that the is still good enough to

produce a good sound. (the piano is tuned at 390 hz)"

 

Again: Hmmmm? I'm curious why you are tuning this instrument @ 390cps? For
that time, in Paris, (which was the mecca for Erard), most pitches were in
the 400cps to 443cps range? I would have chosen 425cps as a pitch that would
put the instrument close to it's designed pitch/tone and yet not overstress
the structure too much. What you are hearing @ 390cps is NOT the true sound
of the instrument, IMO.

Regards,

 This piano was about 7 steps from 440 hz and I’m not shure but I think
these are the original strings. I’ve pitch raised it in about 10 passes
until I started to break strings 

I know it should be tuned at at least 425 but it realy sounds good at this
low pitch. (mabe I’ll continue to raise the pitch gradually to 425 hz later
but am not shure wheter this will have a big change in tone like in a
similar pitch raise in a modern piano)

Also, the case is warped due to the string tension (as most old squares of
that time) Could  this be a good reason to keep the pitch lower ?

Is there something that can be done to rectifie this warpness ?

 

Thanks

Pierre Gevaert

 

Joseph Garrett, R.P.T.

Captain, Tool Police

Squares R I

 

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