bars.

[Horace Greeley]

Fred, Roger, Ed, et al,

I think the engineering issues may be one thing, but my experience with Ds 
is that this strut, whether by design or accident, comes (in many cases) to 
have a fair amount of compression.  I do not think I have ever found one 
under tension, if by that, we mean that, on removing one screw there is a 
noticeable/perceptible movement of the plate.

In terms of tuning stability, my main experience with pianos with struts 
removed has been at the Greek Theater and Universal Amphitheater in LA.  In 
both of those places, the house instruments were as stable as can be 
expected (espcially in the days when Universal was essentially an outdoor 
platform)...until someone wanted to use a Countryman pickup, which requires 
removing the strut.  Then, forget it.

Fred, thanks for the names of those pieces...sigh, the memory is the first 
thing to go...but, I really do agree with your statements on this.  I know 
that Crumb composed for the L, and that the instructions in the scores are 
for that model.  It is a constant battle with performers, who always seem 
to want to use the biggest, newest, etc. instruments.  This is another tip 
of the lack-of-substantive-knowledge-of-their-instrument iceberg with which 
we all deal.

Best and Happy Friday!

Horace



At 10:44 AM 2/2/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>Roger writes:
><<From the design point of view, it definitely looks like a retro fit, or
>after thought, to save on the cost of making new plate patterns. Is the
>long strut that weak??????
>
>     I don't think so, I have a customer with an 1872 concert grand, and it
>has a strut as part of the plate design.
>
>
> >>My best guess is that it is just a safety margin feature, added because of
>some failed plates early in history, and has now been shrouded in mythology.
>I would not gamble.>>
>
>    I have restrung both of these pianos in the last 20 years, and both had
>the strut quite compressed until the string tension was let off, and then
>they were much more easily moved out.  I believe that that strut is to resist
>any tendancy of the middle section from bending due to string loading.  The
>only piano I have tuned without one is very easily put out of tune by
>temperature changes.
>I'll see,
>Thank,s
>Ed