Broadwood bass strings

[Karl Schenscher]

I am a collector and restorer in Australia and have a range of Broadwoods 
pianos from 1790 to 1865. I also worked for Broadwood in London after 
Graduation and tuned and saw hundreds of their instruments. In earlier 
pianos the bass string was carried right across the bridge with the coiling 
passing between the pins. It stopped just short of the string loop. This 
seems by todays methods an unusal practice but in long grands with good 
strings it produces a robust and rich sound that is quite distinctive to 
this maker. In short grands and small uprighs it suffers the usual tonal 
problem of depleted length and smaller soundboard resonance but at the time 
it worked well. The older grands even had cloth wrapped around the coiling 
at the point where the string passed over the bridge and through the pins. 
It did not dull the tone or reduce clarity unduly. This company had been 
building for many decades by then and had made some unique innovations. They 
do restring well with some adaption to the scaling, with reference to the 
original and other factors due to age and deterioration, and can surprise 
the restorer and player alike.  Good wishes from Australia. Karl Schenscher.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Boyce" <David at piano.plus.com>
To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 4:08 AM
Subject: Broadwood bass strings


>I tuned a small Broadwood grand for a family who recently acquired it.
>
> I was struck by how close to the bridge pins the bass string windings 
> start.
> Sorry about the quality of the photo, I only had my cellphone with me.  Do
> you think they messed up a set of strings or something? Not much room for
> error here!
>
> Overall, the piano is so much nicer than the Challens of similar size and
> age that I see so many of. They're solidly built, but just not nice.
>
> Best regards,
>
> David
>