<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <html><head><style type="text/css"></style><title>Re: Sneaky Steinway</title></head><body> <div>Alan and all,</div> <div><br></div> <div>At 7:21 PM -0700 7/8/04, Alan Forsyth wrote:</div> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font size="-1"><b>It is a Steinway. This one has the third bridge. What amazes me is that the speaking length of the first wound string in the tenor, C sharp 29, is about 13 inches shorter than its neighbouring plain string.</b></font></blockquote> <div><br></div> <div>That's because this Steinway (early O) was a serious attempt at building a quality piano in this size. With their later instruments, it would seem that the serious endeavour transformed into one of making a buck. Note that these early pianos have very thick rim sections for a piano of this size. In an effective scale design the speaking length must be shortened between the last plain strings and the first covers (as they are on this piano). D30 is the lowest plain strung note on this piano, which is a better place to break on a piano of this length, but no manufacturer today has the courage to do it. Most 'designers' are still stuck on note C28 - Bfl26 as the lowest plain strung treble note. Try it on the scaling sheet. It can't and doesn't work.</div> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font size="-1"><b> The bass break starts at note E20.</b></font></blockquote> <div><br></div> <div>Indeed. But in this piano the real break is at C#29/D30. However the first few covered notes on the tenor bridge are also trichords. These should be ditched and the piano re-scaled so that it has bichords from E20 right through to C#29. The suspended bass bridge needs to go as well. The speaking length on A1 will need to be reduced to about 135 cm from the original 140. Inner rims don't make good sound boards.</div> <div><br></div> <div>This model had a compression crowned board with quite shallow soundboard ribs, and they mostly are collapsed. These pianos would be a good candidates for rescaling and redesigning the sound board (while keeping the tenor bridge). Actually its the only six foot length piano which is worth remanufacturing (all manufacturers included).</div> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font size="+1"><b> </b></font><font size="-1"><b> As you can now see the capo bar is only in the treble. The tenor and bass has the agraffes which made the piano an absolute pig to tune. The strings kept jumping back into the kink created by the agraffes.</b></font></blockquote> <div><br></div> <div>Poor rendering is common with these pianos. However, the problem is that the understring felt is binding with the strings, making rendering almost impossible. When destringing these pianos, try running your finger along the underside of the original strings (which look shiny and clean underneath). You'll notice that there are very small rough spots on the wire. These cause the strings to bind on the understring felt. I hold designs where the counterbearng segments are bearing hard on the understring felt in low regard. The Bechsteins with their very wide felt bearings become a tuners nightmare when they get older. When restringing pianos with this type of layout, we fit a counterbearing bar between the tuning pin fields and the felt. If the bar is set to take most of the load off the understring felt the rendering will be significantly improved. Furthermore, the practice of setting a too-short distance between the bearing felt and agraffe (as Steinway and Bechstein still do) tends to restrict the tone a little. I notice that Yamaha seem to have discovered that this is a problem also. Their later pianos have more free string distance between agraffe and bearing felt. We've been increasing the free segment length to around 20 mm in retrung pianos since 1995.</div> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font size="-1"><b>If anyone knows the model designation please tell me. The serial # is 90964.  (1899)</b></font></blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font size="+1"><b> </b></font></blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font size="-1"><b>The soundboard is plastered in decals dedicated to kings and queens, emperors and many other a%"&*%*# 's governing Europe at the time, so it is definitely a Hamburg.</b></font></blockquote> <div><br></div> <div>This model always was smothered with 'Royal spruke'.</div> <div><br></div> <div><font size="+1">Ron O</font></div> <x-sigsep><pre>-- </pre></x-sigsep> <div><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</font></div> <div><font color="#000000">mailto:info@overspianos.com.au<br> _______________________</font></div> </body> </html>