<!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 6.00.2900.2963" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Today I tuned a Baldwin Monarch Micro-Grand. Clearly an economy grade piano. I couldn't find a serial number, but the piano has been refinished and restrung (plus keytops, painted-black ebony sharps (yuk!) and hammers) and some years ago - so I presume the piano is from sometime between the 1920s and 1950s (more likely closer to the former). My question concerns the string scale. It has a large bass section (F3 is the highest bass note - so what, 33 notes?) and the long bridge has zero hockey stick. Apparently someone a long time ago tried to design a string scale for a small piano that approached some sort of logarithmic progression, omitted the low tension shortened low tenor notes, and didn't worry about putting a long bass bridge on the piano.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>So why did this approach nearly vanish way back then? Why DID folks get going with the hockey-stick long bridge ends? Clearly, designers of small pianos way back then had two paths to follow. Why did most go for the hockey-stick?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Terry Farrell<BR>Farrell Piano</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A href="http://www.farrellpiano.com">www.farrellpiano.com</A><BR><A href="mailto:terry@farrellpiano.com">terry@farrellpiano.com</A></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>BTW - Don't you just love sustain-shortened killer octave areas? I was doing some measurements with my Verituner and found that on some notes I could have a unison up to about 8 cents off and you would barely hear the start of a beat! Talk about some mighty easy/fast tuning! Add the false beats into the mix and those dead scale areas can actually be an asset for some pianos!</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>