All the more reason to measure all the string lengths etc. and have someone crunch the numbers for you. He "wiped" the scale, so he needs to pay for the time/work to do it right. Both he, and you, will appreciate the improvement. A happy customer gives good referrals. Patrick On Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 7:20 PM, <tnrwim at aol.com> wrote: > 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<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<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<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= > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20110106/a29456f7/attachment.htm>
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