<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <html><head><style type="text/css"></style><title>Stuart 2.2 metre grand launch</title></head><body> <div>Hi all,</div> <div><br></div> <div>Next Tuesday evening I will be attending the official launch concert for the new Stuart 220cm grand piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. I wouldn't have been invited under normal circumstances<font color="#0000FF"> (since our Mr Stuart regards me as "an enthusiast at a very early stage of developing your ideas and grappling with the logistics of their implementation" - 11 September 2002 fax)</font>, but since this event is a public concert and I have been invited along by a friend and colleague, I will be enthusiastically attending.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Below is an image of the man himself regulating one of his new 220 cm pianos. This image appeared in today's Sydney Morning Herald, but since the image was removed from the SMH site by this afternoon, I've scanned a copy for you all to have a sneak preview.</div> <div><br></div> <div align="center"><img src="cid:a05210600bb10ed32a810@[61.8.11.103].1.0"></div> <div><br></div> <div>Just in case the above image doesn't make it through the Pianotech filter, it is also viewable on my website at;</div> <div><br></div> <div>http://overspianos.com.au/st_2.2.jpg</div> <div><br></div> <div>The accompanying text of the SMH article, "Piano patriot strikes a note above imports" , can be found at;</div> <div><br></div> <div>http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/13/1055220770227.html</div > <div><br></div> <div>And now for a few preliminary comments based on my observation of the image<font color="#0000FF"> (sorry about the quality of the scanned image, but newsprint source doesn't help the end result)</font>. I haven't seen this piano 'in the flesh yet', but the image reveals quite a bit about its design, and we service the Stuart concert piano at Sydney University's Great Hall. As you would expect, there are many similarities. For all of my own reservations regarding Wayne's design philosophy, these are very carefully built pianos. Note the evenly laid spacing of the string sections. Very nice work.</div> <div><br></div> <div>This model, as with the concert grand, has an eight octave compass from the F below A1 to the F above C88. Special agraffes can be seen, fitted under the capo bars - which for all Stuart pianos extend throughout the entire compass. The key board which Wayne is handling in the image looks to be well made<font color="#0000FF"> (it is made in house, like a majority of the parts in Stuart pianos. The actions however are made by Tokiwa and are Yamaha copies)</font>. The strike scale would appear to be pretty wide, judging from the heavy splay in the high treble. The bandsaw work in particular looks to be very good, since the key widths are nice and even. You can see from the image that the bass/treble break is at C#17/D18, with seven bi-chord notes on the lower end of the treble bridge, and no tenor bridge. The first plain wire is note A25. The bi-chord covers look to be made of the usual Stuart winding material - stainless steel. The scaling of this instrument, for a modern 2 metre piano, seems pretty bazaar to me. As I've mentioned before on this list, there is no way that one can achieve good scaling uniformity when employing bi-chords for the lower notes on the long bridge. There must be a reduction in the speaking length when the scale steps from tri-chord plains to covered bi-chords. At least Stuart's resisted the temptation to cross onto tri-chord covers from the plain strung tri-chords, on the long bridge. I just can't understand why any modern maker would want to use covered wires on the long bridge. It just doesn't work. I look forward to a time when it is normal to run a log scale down only until the useable maximum speaking length is reached for the particular size of piano. Once that longest practical log length is reached, the bass section should begin. The temptation to drop in a Wolfendenesque hockey stick just because we've run out of piano, is just plain dumb in 2003. Its simple common sense. The piano world is still rotten with 'hockey stick bridges'<font color="#0000FF"> (but not the Stuart in this regard)</font> and covered strings being used in a vain attempt to cover up huge scaling deficiencies with the said bent bridge. Let's move forward from 1900 for heavens sake !!!!!!!!!<font color="#0000FF"> (I digress - I promise not to do it again tonight)</font>.</div> <div><br></div> <div>The bridge agraffes on the later Stuart pianos<font color="#0000FF"> (from my jaundiced perspective)</font> are a much improved design when compared to those on his first instruments. His original agraffes looked as if they were probably exposing the bridges to dangerous rolling forces, since the strings were offset upwards from the rear pin (which is held down by the brass hooks) and upwards over the front pin. Wayne is quite vocal in his criticism of conventionally pinned bridges. He claims that the tendency of the conventional pinning to rotate the bridge horizontally, is a primary cause of poor tone. I very much doubt this claim, though I have read comments by others on this list, where they have wondered about the effect of side draft also. Of the Stuart pianos I have observed with the earlier agraffes, they look to be candidates for pulling the bridges forward off the sound board somewhat prematurely<font color="#0000FF"> (the bridges look to be leaning pretty heavily)</font>. Anyhow, someone in the inner circle must have been feeling the same way, since the new agraffes offset the strings equally down then up. The new agraffes have a horizontal front and rear pin, with a third centre pin which fits under machined brass retainer 'hooks'. There is very little clearance between the wires and the brass hooks, so I would expect these agraffes to be quite noisy. Since there are silicon rubber blocks fitted to the agraffes, pressing up on the wire segments between the front and rear pins, I think we could safely speculate that the agraffes were indeed causing string noise.</div> <div><br></div> <div>The height-adjustable vertical hitch pins are of a design that is more than a little familiar to me, since I remember telling Wayne about this idea when Geoff Pollard, Wayne and I shared a couple of drinks at a bar during one of the early Australian technician conventions. As it happens, I've never actually built any of these hitch pins. But they are threaded into the plate, with a hexagon key recess in the top for adjustment. If my memory serves me, I think Stuart's pins might have a collar around it with a groove for the wire. This collar idea was not part of my original concept, but it is probably something that Wayne came up with as a refinement.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Well that's it for observations thus far until I get to see and hear the real thing. By the way. I've mention before on this list, that I would really like to see the design of the Sohmer bridge agraffe<font color="#0000FF"> (I haven't seen an example to date)</font>. A number of you must be digital imaging savy by now. If any of you have access to a Sohmer and a digital camera, I would very much like to receive a jpeg. Thanks in advance.</div> <div><br></div> <div>For those who asked recently, I'll take my camera in to the ABC tomorrow to photograph the redesigned and de-tuned front duplex system on the 1962 Steinway D. I'm tuning for a live broadcast so I'll have plenty of time to get a couple of shots. I'll get them on-line sometime soon.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Best,</div> <div>Ron O.</div> <div><br></div> <x-sigsep><pre>-- </pre></x-sigsep> <div><font size="-2" color="#000000"><br> </font><font face="Times New Roman" size="+1" color="#0000FF"><b>OVERS PIANOS - SYDNEY</b></font></div> <div><font color="#000000"><i>    </i></font><font color="#0000FF"><i> Grand Piano Manufacturers</i></font><font color="#000000"><br>      _______________________</font></div> <div><font size="-2" color="#000000"><br> </font><font color="#000000">Web http://overspianos.com.au<br> mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au<br>      _______________________</font></div> </body> </html>