1098's

[Delwin D Fandrich]

Richard E. West wrote:

> We have a bunch of 30 year old Steinway 1098's.  Has anyone restrung these
> pianos?  Should  they be rescaled?  Does restringing eliminate the two big
> problems that plague the 1098's--false beats and difficulty in tuning?  How
> are the bridges, bridge pins, and overall downbearing?
>
> Richard West
> University of Nebraska

-------------------------------------


Richard,

In years past, I did quite a lot of investigative work into the problems found in this
piano model.

If you do decide to restring them, the answer to the scaling question is yes, they should
be rescaled. This will help the bass section -- a lot -- and it will help the bass/tenor
cross over. To some extent you can improve the tenor/treble sections, but the problems up
there are are really a bit more complicated. The false-beating problem is, in part, one of
soundboard design and, in part, one of plate design.

The tuning difficulty -- for the most part, confined to the top two sections -- is due to
the designers' attempt to work a tuned duplex string termination system into a small
vertical piano. There is not enough string deflection angle across the V-bar to adequately
terminate the speaking length of the string. Quite a lot of energy bleeds across the V-bar
setting up a multitude of false-beats. This shallow string deflection angle is also the
primary cause of the tuning problems. Although technicians often complain about there
being too much friction across the V-bar and pressure bar systems of some pianos, this is
one case where there is simply not enough.

Although these problems would be fairly easy to deal with at a factory design level they
are very difficult to solve (although not impossible) during rebuilding. About the best
you can do is to grind down the feet spacing the pressure bars off of the plate as much as
is practical. You have to be certain that you do not bury the strings against the plate,
but by grinding off as much as possible you can increase the string deflection angle by at
least a couple of degrees. Unfortunately, this will only help, not completely solve, the
tuning and false beating problems.

These pianos are very solidly built and potentially quite good instruments. It's
unfortunate that these problems still plague them after all these years.

-- ddf