<!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 6.00.6000.16397" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" bottomMargin=7 bgColor=#ffffff leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7> <DIV>Hi list, especially belly genii.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Have this gorgeous 1878 8 ft Bechstein, at first restored in the "keep maximum original" way (FWIW), with just new hammers.</DIV> <DIV>The piano is healthy, but to my taste, it sounds a bit dry, poor, and easily harsh when giving power.  Lots of voicing experiments improve the sound a bit, but we stay in the same ballpark : dry, poor and harsh, and also, with this 1870 desing, lots of after ring, but in this case, ugly after ring (I use to like after ring when it is harmonious, but here it isn't, so I don't like).</DIV> <DIV>So I come to decision that the board could be shot (which decision I use to wait long before taking, as I use to like old boards and their often glorious personality).</DIV> <DIV>So I start to take the old strings off, first in the trebble, and then the bass strings.  To my happy surprize, the remaining tenor strings (in fact the whole middle section of the piano) begin to sing like crazy, with lots of fundamental and very nice singing overtones, exactly like what I want to hear in a piano, and with nice personality.  Sure, when measuring string deflection with Lowell gauge, I ascertained that the board went up.</DIV> <DIV>But here is my question : is this a sign that the piano had too much downbearing, or not enough ?  Indeed, when unstringing, the hole load on the board decreased, but then, the board going up, the load of the remaining strings was larger than before (or not ?).  So when restringing, should I aim for more or less overall downbearing ?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Stéphane Collin.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV></BODY></HTML>