<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <html><head><style type="text/css"></style><title>Re: F Chopin</title></head><body> <div>I'm really curious about this repeated assertion:</div> <div><br></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="+1" color="#000099"><b>This is an original</b></font><font face="Arial" size="+1" color="#0000EE"><u><b> Bird Cage/Over-Damper-Style</b></u></font><font face="Arial" size="+1" color="#000099"><b> instrument predating 1850. These pianos were typically manufactured with</b></font><font face="Arial" size="+1" color="#FF0000"><b> wood plates</b></font><font face="Arial" size="+1"><b> (emphasis mine)<font color="#000099"> instead of the full metal plate construction which came after 1860, as pioneered by Steinway. Pre-1860 instruments were traditionally tuned to a lower concert pitch in the A435 range, simply because the instruments' wooden plates were not designed to take more foot-pounds of string tension.</font></b></font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="+1" color="#000099"><b><br></b></font></div> <div>All pitch history aside, I have yet to encounter a wooden plate and have a hard time imagining such a beast, can anyone enlighten me? Doesnt the metal plate date back to Alpheus Babcock in the '30's? Maybe he's thinking of Geo Wash's teeth.....</div> </body> </html>