[pianotech] terms

[Ron Nossaman]

On 1/10/2011 9:29 PM, George F Emerson wrote:
> John Delacour wrote:
>  >A belly bar is what the Americans call a rib ...
> I've been working in the American piano industry for many years, and I
> do not recall hearing a rib called a belly bar.

I have, In England and Australia. Rib is a much more descriptive term.


>I have heard the entire assembly that spans the bass and
> treble arms as a belly rail. If there is a need to distinguish between
> its three basic components, top, middle, and bottom belly rails work for
> me.

Me too. Again, descriptive and obvious.


>Perhaps /bar/ would be a better term than /rail/ for these parts.

Perhaps, but I don't see it as further clarification.


>  >Schimmel says the Americans call the Damm the/liner/.
> In my experience in American piano manufacturing, /liner/ is a term for
> the wood strips in an upright piano to which the soundboard is glued,
> and not an appropriate term for any component of a grand piano.

Again, agreed.

I've always presumed the point of specific nomenclature was to make 
communication possible, rather than to be "right".
Ron N