Here is the situation with this Sohmer. It's on the island of Kauai, which had a major hurricane go over it in 1992. The piano was soaked, and then sat for 15 years in a cabinet shop. 6 years ago my client bought the piano for $100 and put it in his living room with the intension of rebuilding it himself, but he soon realized that he was in over his head. Then he suffered a major injury, and nothing was done until this spring, when he called me and I inspected the piano. I gave a bid for $5000 to put on new strings, pin block, etc., and shipping the piano to Oahu. He rejected that bid. Against my better judgment, I agreed to restring the piano in his living room over a period of time. So in September I went there and took off a bunch of the strings in the high treble. There was a scale on the plate, and I told him that is what I needed to restring the piano. But when I got there on Monday to put strings back on, (he had bought strings from Schaff,) he very proudly showed me how he had refinished the plate and soundboard, (a good job), but covering up the stringing scale numbers. He at least did write some things down, but they didn't make any sense, so I had to invent a scale. I started with the first treble strings, and because some of the strings he bought were rusty, (that's another story), I skipped a few notes, but when I got to the end of the middle treble, I ran out of hitch pins. So I recounted, and checked, but couldn't figure out what went wrong. So I thought I would start from scratch, and get a scale, and start over.
What is surprising, is that after 20 years, and with the kind of water damage that the piano suffered, the pin block is tight, there are no cracks in the soundboard or bridges, and the action is a great shape, considering the age. The guy has refinished the case, more or less, and it's starting to look like a respectable instrument. No, if I can only get all the strings on, I think it will turn out OK.
Wim
-----Original Message-----
From: Delwin D Fandrich <del at fandrichpiano.com>
To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Thu, Jan 6, 2011 11:15 am
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Sohmer scale
Or fix it. I don’t have all Sohmer scales but the ones I do have leave a lot to be desired. So much so that I’d be reluctant to tackle rebuilding one without the option of scaling the thing. Trouble is in this case fixing it might mean a new bridge. At least after taking and evaluating the scale you’d know. I always figure it’s a good idea to be able to give the customer some idea of what the results of a job will be. With Sohmer—any old piano, for that—it’s always a wild card until you’ve actually looked at the scale. The you and the customer can make an informed decision.
ddf
Delwin D Fandrich
Piano Design & Fabrication
620 South Tower Avenue
Centralia, Washington 98531 USA
del at fandrichpiano.com
ddfandrich at gmail.com
Phone 360.736.7563
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of tnrwim at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2011 12:27 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Sohmer scale
Thanks, Del, for the information. I guess I was hoping for a "miracle".
What I did before I ran into trouble with the piano in question was divide some of the whole numbers into smaller sections with half sizes. But perhaps I should leave well enough alone, and just use what the piano had originally.
WIm
-----Original Message-----
From: Delwin D Fandrich <del at fandrichpiano.com>
To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Thu, Jan 6, 2011 9:28 am
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Sohmer scale
I’m sorry–did I miss some additional numbers or an attachment somewhere? You can’t tell much of anything about a stringing scale without string lengths. Wire sizes by themselves are meaningless.
I have a Sohmer 6’ 3” scale in my computer archives with a tension of 228 lbf at note A-37 and a tension of 121 lbf at note A-25. Try voicing that out smoothly. It has a tension of 215 lbf at E-44 and 180 lbf at F-45.
Another Sohmer scale I have handy is from an 8’ 4” grand. This one has a tension of 296 lbf at note C-64 – the percentage of breaking is about 83%. This piano also has a tension of 334 lbf at note D-30 (and that’s still a tri-chord steel string). The total scale tension on this piano was about 62,850 lbf. I’m still amazed that the frame hadn’t broken wide open on that sucker!
There is nothing you can do to “rescale” these pianos and make them into anything decent. They need (and got) new bridges.
ddf
Delwin D Fandrich
Piano Design & Fabrication
620 South Tower Avenue
Centralia, Washington 98531 USA
del at fandrichpiano.com
ddfandrich at gmail.com
Phone 360.736.7563
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of tnrwim at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2011 10:15 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Sohmer scale
Very poor scaling. Some Sohmer scales are among some of the worst I’ve ever evaluated—and I’ve been through hundreds, if not thousands of them.
ddf
Del
Looking at the scale Rick just posted, without doing a lot of evaluation, how would you improve the scale?
Wim
-----Original Message-----
From: Delwin D Fandrich <del at fandrichpiano.com>
To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Thu, Jan 6, 2011 5:11 am
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Sohmer scale
Very poor scaling. Some Sohmer scales are among some of the worst I’ve ever evaluated—and I’ve been through hundreds, if not thousands of them.
ddf
Delwin D Fandrich
Piano Design & Fabrication
620 South Tower Avenue
Centralia, Washington 98531 USA
del at fandrichpiano.com
ddfandrich at gmail.com
Phone 360.736.7563
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Carlos Ralon
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2011 6:32 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Sohmer scale
Wm,
To my knowledge..., Sohmer did not use any half sizes in their scales. I just un-strung an old 5'7" Sohmer and it hod no half sizes. Anyone know why?
Carlos Ralon, RPT
----- Original Message -----
From: tnrwim at aol.com
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2011 11:51 PM
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Sohmer scale
Why would anyone want to use the original scaling on any piano?
On some pianos, it might make a difference. But not on all pianos. Sohmer, for one, did a pretty good job. But besides that, this is a situation where I, (and the customer), don't want to spend the time and/or money to figure out a new scale. It's just not worth the effort to try to improve on the piano.
Wim
-----Original Message-----
From: Terry Farrell <mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com>
To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Wed, Jan 5, 2011 2:41 pm
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Sohmer scale
I always start scratching my head when I see treads like this. Why would anyone want to use the original scaling on any piano? I mean I think this thread is separate from the museum restoration thread......
Terry Farrell
On Jan 5, 2011, at 1:08 PM, tnrwim at aol.com wrote:
Rick
I got rid of my scaling books when I moved to Hawaii, thinking I would never restring a piano again. Could I ask you to send me the numbers, please, privately if you wish.
Thanks
Wim
-----Original Message-----
From: RWyatt8547 <RWyatt8547 at aol.com>
To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Wed, Jan 5, 2011 6:42 am
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Sohmer scale
Wim
look on page 397 in Travis guide to restringing , I believe that is the scale you need
Rick Wyatt
Dallas chapter
In a message dated 1/4/2011 4:42:06 P.M. Central Standard Time, tnrwim at aol.com writes:
Does anyone have the scale for Sohmer grand model 57. Customer removed all the stripngs, and wrote down the scale that was on the plate, but didn't write down how many notes per size. I've more or less figured out what I need, but I've run out of hitch pins in the middle section.
Wim
Sent from my HTC PURE™, a Windows® phone from AT&T=
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