<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <html><head><style type="text/css"></style><title>Re: Reverse crown was agraffe bridges</title></head><body> <div>At 10:25 AM -0800 11/19/01, Delwin D Fandrich wrote:</div> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite>From: <a href="mailto:Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no">Richard Brekne</a></blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>Isnt this a rather.... wide definition of a duplex Del ? I mean when the get to the point of being 3-5 mm long and muted at that it seems a bit of a stretch to call the thing a duplex.... or what ?<br> </blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>--<br> </blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>What would you prefer to call it? Duplex simply means 'consisting of two parts.' Beyond that we really have to get more specific. If we are going to go to the trouble of tuning the duplex surely it's not too difficult to say so. And we have a perfectly good word we can use: aliquot, meaning, "to divide something exactly." Or we can say the duplex is "an aliquot part" of the speaking length meaning the duplex is divided into some fractional part of the speaking length.</blockquote> <div><br></div> <div>So far as I'm concerned "Duplex" is a Steinway term and I would use it only to refer to a system of tuned back lengths and front lengths as used on Steinways and imitators of the Steinway system.  That is why I speak always of the back length etc.  simple words with no proprietary sense.</div> <div><br></div> <div>"Aliquot" is the name of a totally different system of tuned partials patented by Blüthner. "Aliquot scaling" is defined in Webster as "a method of strengthening the tone of the upper notes by providing an extra sympathetic string for each note".  That is the only sense in which this abstruse word applies to the pianomaker.</div> <div><br></div> <div>And while we're at it, "Capo d'Astro" as cast in black letters into the plate of so many Steinways, is a pure Steinwayism with no etymological basis at all,  "CAPO TASTO" is presumably what they meant to say.  Your "capo tastro"  and someone else's "Oliquot" are non-existent entities.</div> <div><br></div> <div>For those not familiar with Blüthner's Aliquot scale, a fourth string of mwg 9 to 11 runs beside the three main strings, above and to the right of them.  These strings have their own tuning pin and are tuned to a partial of the main note.  They hook under a special extension to the agraffes and at the sounboard bridge they pass through a tall brass pillar screwed into the bridge.  The dampers of the affected notes have a special side-piece to damp the "aliquot" strings.  The classic Blüthner is a beautifully made piano but, aliquot or no, they rarely shine in the treble, in spite of what seems to be a very nice arrangement of cast-in pressure bar furnished with downward pointing 'blank' agraffes in brass.</div> <div><br></div> <div>JD</div> <div><br></div> </body> </html>