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<DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> <FONT size=3>Happy New year Ron</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3> Great to hear from you & good of you to=
remove your head from the piano long enough to post. It's always good to see=
what's up/new</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3> Good Post & enjoyed the design in the pics.
Beautiful work. I especially liked the ideas about the beams & belly nee=
ding
more stiffnes from the maple ones you installed.. This makes a great deal of=
sense to me. In hind sight what doesn't make sense is so much goes into a fi=
ne
laminated rim in some American pianos & then the belly rails so weak due=
to laminated softwoods. This has been in my mind for a while now.=
I'd
truly Like to here the 225 in the picture. After all design is great when th=
e
end result produces a sound never/rarely heard before. I should think that a=
piano so constructed should sustain for a very long time in every register w=
ith
tonal color to live for.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3> Is this so?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3> Looking at my Mason double A project&n=
bsp;I
notice just how toooo much board is behind the bridge. Its' simply cavernous=
.
It's not to late to put in a fish This has got me thinking again. Is t=
here
a percentage of board to remove formula that seems usual?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3> Thanks & Blessings</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3> Dale Erwin</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blu=
e 2px solid"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial =
color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV>Terry, Dale and all,</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>From what can be seen, that grand looks like a pretty well thought ou=
t
design, with a better distribution of back beams and a generously dimensio=
ned
cross beam. And the brand name is?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Dale wrote;</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE cite="" type="cite"><FONT face=Arial color=#000000>&nb=
sp; Buy
the way what is the purpose of the wooden block filling in the tre=
ble.
It looks like it completely eliminated the treble board area or is it th=
e
picture?</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Terry has fitted a treble section cut-off to reduce what I also regar=
d as
excessive sound board area behind the bridge in the treble section. If you=
look at the panel-belly rail contact in the top string section, adequate
treble area remains. While it might look to be less than desirable to thos=
e
who are used to looking at Steinway pianos with the board removed, this pi=
ano
which Terry has worked on has a main-belly-rail section made from two
thicknesses glued together. There's a lot of belly rail acreage underneath=
that treble section of the board.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><IMG SRC="cid:X.MA1.1104599304@aol.com" DATASIZE="54060" XWIDTH=
="640" XHEIGHT="480" ID="MA1.1104599304" ></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>The belly rail of our 225 piano is similarly constructed, with two 30=
mm
thicknesses of Rock maple glued together to produce a belly rail which is
effectively a 60 mm thick section of solid maple. The entire belly rail
assembly in our piano is made from Rock Maple, while the cut-off is made f=
rom
Australian Antarctic Beech and Silky Beech.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>An image of 225 piano no.4 with a 60 mm thick main belly rail
section can be found at;</DIV>
<DIV>http://www.overspianos.com.au/ctoff.html</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>With the Steinway D pianos from Hamburg, the belly rail comprises a
single 30 mm thick section of Red Beech. I suspect that small total sectio=
nal
size of this piece is why Steinway glue the key bed to the belly rail, sin=
ce
it will help what I suspect to be an under-engineered belly rail to suppor=
t
the sound board.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>An image of the '62 Hamburg D case we recently re-boarded can be view=
ed
at;</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>http://www.overspianos.com.au/stdctoff2.jpg</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>A similar treble cut-off to Terry's can be seen fitted to this piano.=
The
laminated bass side corner cut-off reduces considerably the excessive soun=
d
board area of the original design, and the resultant 900 + mm middle order=
ribs will better resist premature collapse. The original laminated sound b=
oard
cut-off and belly-rail-sound-board-support-beam are made as single bent
lamination, which is a good idea. As with Terry's modified sound board are=
a,
we left the original cut-off in place since it won't do any harm. Furtherm=
ore,
it saves us having to insert stiffening sections across the cut-off fill
panel.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>The original D's treble-section belly rail design can be seen better =
in
the following image.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>http://www.overspianos.com.au/stdctoff1.jpg</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>In addition to the treble cut-off, we have fitted an extra back beam =
in
place of the original 'Steinway bell' to better support both the belly rai=
l
and the hitch plate of the iron plate in the top string section. With
reference to the image and text below, note the original construction of t=
he
belly rail assembly.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>The lower piece of the original belly rail is the 30 mm thick main be=
lly
rail beam of European Red Beech (which is also glued to the keybed of a D)=
.
Then there is a 30 mm section of pine or some other light wood
(distinguishable in this image by the visible knott). This piece is necess=
ary
to allow sufficient room in the action bay for housing the damper levers. =
This
piece is made from Rock Maple in our piano. Above this we see the laminate=
d
Maple/Bubinga mahogany piece which supports the sound board across the bel=
ly.
The most surprising aspect of this design is why Steinway used such a
light-weight wood to join the main Red Beech belly rail span to the
Maple/Bubinga laminate.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Structurally, the belly rail/sound board connection, in all grand pia=
nos,
is already at a strength disadvantage when compared to the rim, since ther=
e is
considerable horizontal offset between the main belly rail member and the
belly rail assembly's connection with the sound board. On this list, much
justifiable ridicule has been levelled at several pianos of Asian origin f=
or
using 'select hardwood' Luaun in the rim, belly rail and back beams. The f=
ill
piece of pine in this concert grand would seem not to be any better when i=
t
comes to material strength. Could it be that since the pine piece can't be=
seen in this concert grand once the sound board is installed, that it foun=
d
its way into the product as a cost cutting measure? Surely not!</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Happy new year fellow listees,</DIV>
<DIV>Ron O.</DIV></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
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