<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Re: The Mother of all Bellyrails</TITLE> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; = charset=iso-8859-1"> <STYLE type=text/css>BLOCKQUOTE { PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px } DL { PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px } UL { PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px } OL { PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px } LI { PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px } </STYLE> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4134.600" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; = BORDER-LEFT: #000080 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: = black"><B>From:</B> <A title=sec@overspianos.com.au = href="mailto:sec@overspianos.com.au">Ron Overs</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A = title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> February 08, 2003 1:20 = PM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: The Mother of all Bellyrails</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV>At 9:38 AM -0800 8/2/03, Delwin D Fandrich wrote:</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE cite type="cite"><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" = color=#000080>I've been at this rewhatevering business since early in the 1960s. About = the time I figure I must have seen most everything, someone like Chickering = comes along with this:</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT><BR></DIV> <DIV>Thanks for the post Del, its a very interesting piano. It looks = to be between 6'0" and 6'6"? Its interesting to see another older scale = layout where the designer has had the courage to make the last plain wire E32. Some = of the 'modern' designers could benefit by considering such possibilities. = The trichord covered tenor section might better have been done as bichords = from D#31 down, but nevertheless it is a vast scaling improvement on some = of the dreadful 'modern' six foot grands with the lowest plain wire on note B27.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>Well, let's = not jump to conclusions just yet. All of the strings on the transition bridge were = plain steel, not wrapped. Though they may well have been originally. The piano = had been restrung and 'rescaled' some time back. I've not yet run the = scaling through to see what was there....</FONT></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" = color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" = color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; = BORDER-LEFT: #000080 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV>Spurious plate strut resonances would be well under control with = this design also. I note also that the low end of the tenor bridge and high = end of the bass bridge has been placed equidistant from the perimeter of the = board. Some of the 'new breed' wide bodied grands, with their somewhat = ordinary crossovers, leave much to be desired in this respect. Will you be = rebuilding this piano Del? If so I look forward to hearing your impressions of = its sustaining qualities post rebuild.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>Yes, we'll = be resomething, anyway. Haven't decided just yet what approach to take. I'm not sure I = want to float the board as per the original. Nor am I sure I want to put all = that extranious iron back in there. </FONT></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" = color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>And there is = more to that bass bridge than meets the eye. At first glance there appears to be a substantial cantilever--O.K., there is a substantial cantilever--but on = the bottom of the board there are some huge soundboard buttons--probably 40 = or 45 mm in diameter and 25 mm tall--with some pretty substantial screws going up = through them, the soundboard, through some carefully fitted spacers between the soundboard and the bottom of the cantilever and into the bridge body. In = addition to the screws the spacers are solidly glued between the = soundboard and the bottom of the bridge cantilever; in all mostly negating = any effect it may otherwise have had. </FONT></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" = color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>From the = looks of them I'm quite sure these buttons, screws and spacers were fit at the factory as = the piano was being built. </FONT><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" = color=#000080>I'm speculating that during production they discovered that bass bridge = cantilevers didn't work all that well but it was too late to take it out. So they = simply rendered it ineffective by putting in the spacers, buttons and screws.</FONT></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" = color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080><A href="mailto:Del@overspianos.com.au">Del</FONT></A></DIV></BODY></HTML>=