<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; =
charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1264" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I tuned a Wyman Microgrand the other =
day. The piano
is about a year old. Is this a Chinese or Indonesian product? Where on =
earth did
this thing come from?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>A couple interesting features: A 5-ply =
laminated
soundboard and a 5-ply laminated bridge cap in the high treble. The =
soundboard
had micro-thin exterior veneers of some spruce-looking material (contact =
paper?)
and the interior three ply clearly appeared to be some type of hardwood =
-
poplar? birch? selectus garbagatum? </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Now the bridge cap - that thing =
really rocked
me. The long bridge was a solid piece of some kind of hardwood and the
manufacturer actually notched out an 8 mm or so thick chunk off the top =
of this
fine bridge to insert the laminated cap. Clearly, this was done =
on-purpose.
Presumably there was a reason to do this. What was that reason? Because =
they
have a no-compromise approach to piano building? Because the bridge =
otherwise
sounded sooooo bad - the laminated cap was an afterthought fix attempt? =
Because
they monitor this list? I don't know what the cap was made of. It was =
not maple
or beech. Could it have been ironwood (I don't think so)? I hope it =
was not
the same material the soundboard was made of - it did look similar and =
the
laminations were about the same thickness.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Yeah, but how did it sound? Much like =
an uninspired
microgrand. Small. Constrained. Short sustain. Lots of false stuff up in =
the
high treble.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Oh, and did I mention the tuning pins? =
<FONT
face=Kids color=#ff0000 size=5><EM>"CRACK!"</EM></FONT> Many =
of them did
the jumpy thing. And all of them flagpoled enough to make a Steinway =
vertical
seem like Steinway must use half-inch diameter hardened tuning =
pins. If you
wanted to raise or lower the pitch a half-cent, you would have to go 20 =
cents up
or down to get any movement. During the pitch raise, I had to go 50 =
cents sharp
to get the pitch where I wanted it after removing hammer from pin. And =
that's
the ones that were not jumpy! YIKES!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Anyway, that's all I gots to say 'bout
that.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Terry =
Farrell</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>