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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hello Ron and List</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Who's been a busy boy then?? This reads =
like a
fairy tale. I particularly like the British Racing Green - shades of =
faster than
Horowicz! The images didn't come out as "clickable" so I shall try the =
old
gerfinger-poken-unt-mitten-grabben method. Looking forward to the SLR =
digitised
images.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Michael G.(UK)</FONT></DIV>
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style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; =
BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: =
black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=sec@overspianos.com.au =
href="mailto:sec@overspianos.com.au">Overs
Pianos</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A =
title=pianotech@ptg.org
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Cc:</B> <A =
title=martin@miEnterprise.com
href="mailto:martin@miEnterprise.com">Martin Cop</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, May 25, 2005 =
4:39
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> First on-line images =
of the
Overs-Kawai 200 grand piano</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Hi all,</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I've just come through a couple of busy months. The last couple =
weeks
I've put in over 80 hours on tools per week, to get the Yamaha CF =
rebuild out
the door for its first concert tomorrow. Before that, we've been =
building a
new piano out of a Kawai KG5 case and plate, a commission from pianist =
Gerard
Willems, the concert pianist who recorded the Beethoven piano works on =
the
Stuart piano. The Overs-Kawai is for his home studio. We are prepared =
to build
further examples of the Overs-Kawai 200 for FOB A$60,000 (plus 10% GST =
for
local buyers).</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I'm pleased with the outcome of this design exercise, as I wanted =
to
create a piano with a long-ish sustain and a smaller dynamic range, to =
produce
an instrument more suited to a smaller studio. I believe the power of =
our 225
piano is way too much for a small studio. I also wanted to produce a =
studio
instrument with a more economical finish than the standard high gloss =
finish.
After experimenting with a number of colour mixes I arrived at a dark =
green
(somewhat darker than British racing green). A semi-gloss two pack
polyurethane in the green was sprayed off the gun.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>The new 200 cm piano also features an Overs action, two new =
struts from
the plate to the belly rail (originally there were none), a large =
sound board
cut-off and an I rib board. There is no treble cut-off in this piano =
since it
originally had a relatively small sound board area out behind the =
bridge in
the top treble bridge section. The bridges and scale are a new design, =
with a
nominal bridge height of 34 mm and a width of 35 mm. All bridge caps =
are
multi-laminated maple veneer glued up with West System.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Images can now be found at;</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Grande" color=#000000
=
size=-3>http://members.optusnet.com.au/ronovers/overskawai1.jpg</FONT><=
/DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>The sound board is made from solid sitka spruce and is fully rib =
crowned
and supported. It is darker in colour because we haven't bleached it. =
The bass
corner cutt-off is made from a hardwood-ply laminated sheet which has =
a softer
rock maple veneer top and bottom. The inside surface of the outer rim =
was
originally black, but the veneer underneath was undamaged and with =
quite a
nice figure, so we stained it and finished it with acid cat lacquer at =
the
same time as we sprayed the board top and bridges. One of the nice =
things I
like about grands where the pin block is removable, is that you can =
respray
the inner rim, sound board and action bay with a clear finish coating =
in the
one operation. This approach allows us to avoid the typical
'straw-broom-finish' which pervades most action bays. I remain =
unconvinced of
the alleged superior tuning stability of those designs in which the =
pin block
and stretcher rail is built integral with the case. I really like the =
Kawai
KG6 as a shell from which to build a decent small grand (especially =
the
earlier examples with the oak rims and back beams). I believe these
instruments, when rebuilt appropriately, will outclass a new S&S =
model
B.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Grande" color=#000000
=
size=-3>http://members.optusnet.com.au/ronovers/overskawai2.jpg</FONT><=
/DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>This image shows the treble string sections. There are no =
specific front
duplex lengths in this design. Any noisy duplex segments get a couple =
of drops
of glue along the duplex segment to detune the noise. The typical =
Kawai
half-round-chromed rear stringing pillow has been substituted with a =
hardwood
antarctic beech strip, which is profiled in thickness to achieve the =
desired
downbearing settings (I prefer to set the downbearing by varying the =
stringing
pillow height instead of varying the bridge height - this is because I =
want a
certain bridge stiffness to avoid tonal 'dips' between the sound board =
ribs).
The stringing pillows are covered with green felt to slightly dampen =
the back
scale activity, without the need of a listing strip. The serial no. =
first
section, "OK1", represents Overs-Kawai s/n 1, while the 662460 is the =
serial
number of the original shell.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Grande" color=#000000
=
size=-3>http://members.optusnet.com.au/ronovers/overskawai3.jpg</FONT><=
/DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>This image from the bent side shows the green outer finish a =
little
lighter than it is. The camera flash washed the foreground a bit. The =
plate is
close to original with the exception that the strut junction at the
bass/treble break is re-profiled to improve its aesthetics, and the =
plate
perimeter bolts and set bolts are all chromed dome nuts, similar to =
the Overs
225 pianos, with a Baldwin style plate mounting system. The capo bars =
received
their usual re-profiling and hardening. Also notice that the strut =
between the
agraffe and first capo section has been ground to allow bridge =
clearance. The
higher 34 mm bridge, combined with the much smaller crown radius =
causes the
bridges to sit much higher in the piano, particularly in the mid =
sections. The
stringing pillow heights in the tenor sections are often as high as 10 =
mm.
Ideally, a crown in the treble hitch plate would help the setup where
high-crowned replacement sound boards are fitted. The original crown =
in the
belly rail is removed, prior to fitting the sound board cutoff, to =
slightly
reduce the final bridge height in the middle.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Grande" color=#000000
=
size=-3>http://members.optusnet.com.au/ronovers/overskawai4.jpg</FONT><=
/DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>This image shows the new bass bridge design. The suspended bridge =
is now
thankfully gone, and the speaking length of A1 is shortened by 20 mm =
to allow
for a longer back scale. Similarly, the hitch pins for the singles =
have been
moved back so that A1's hitch is as close as possible to the back of =
the
plate. The original piano had an A1 free-backscale-segment length of =
only 85
mm. This new configuration yields a free length of 135 mm at A1. With =
the
double looped german eyes, this piano is now producing a very =
acceptable low
bass for a 200 cm piano. The bass cut-off can be seen meeting with the =
bass
side about a foot (300 mm) back from the hinge cut-out. The darker =
wood
moulding between the sound board and cut-off area is antarctic beech. =
The
plate is fitted using the Baldwin style mounting system, so the =
visible hole
in plate perimeter-flange is for accessing the plate height adjustment =
screw,
prior to fitting the perimeter bolts.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Grande" color=#000000
=
size=-3>http://members.optusnet.com.au/ronovers/overskawai5.jpg</FONT><=
/DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Well that's it for the this piano for now. The lid and fall has =
to be
sprayed with top coat yet. Should be all completed in a couple of =
weeks.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>The Yamaha CF which we rebuilt for Dubbo Council went out on =
Tuesday. The
sound board re-crowning was very successful. This piano now has lots =
of sound
board crown and it sunk out no more than a standard new sound board =
during the
stringing process. The re-whatevered instrument seems to have lost its =
characteristic Yamaha-CF-light-tone, with the modified board yielding =
a much
darker tone. While the plate was re-installed into the case to the =
same height
as original, the cast stringing pillows had to be packed up by around =
5 mm to
achieve the desired down bearing settings. This indicates that the =
crown of
the restored board was considerably higher than when the piano was =
new.
Notably, the tone in the killer octave area was most satisfactory. We =
used new
CF3 hammers for this repair and I must say I'm totally struck on the =
quality
of the Wurzen felt. Thank you André for bringing this hammer felt to =
our
attention. The tonal balance over the compass of the piano was quite
remarkably even, even before any voicing was undertaken. I've taken =
images of
the re-crowning process, but they were taken with my conventional SLR =
camera.
The Overs-Kawai images are the first digital images we've taken. I may =
post a
report to the list regarding the re-crowning process once I get the =
images
scanned. I predict that a lot more re-crowning jobs will be undertaken =
in
instances where the panel is not split.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Ron O.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><X-SIGSEP><PRE>--
</PRE></X-SIGSEP>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#0000ff size=+1><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 color=#000000 size=-2><BR></FONT><FONT =
color=#000000>Web
http://overspianos.com.au</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT
=
color=#000000>mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au<BR>_______________________<=
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