Fortepiano

[C. E. Hood]

Re: Fortepianos (not "Fortes" since they are much more piano than forte!) of the late 1`8th cent and early 19th had leather dampers.  Chamois is the closest we builders can find to what they used, but the trouble is that modern chamois has been tanned by chemicals which will enhance rust on the strings, and leather is hygroscopic anyhow, and further, the old wire was iron not mild steel and did not rust as readily, as any of you SKA armorers will know.   So, what many makers do is simply use modern felt.  (which the original builders did not have, until into the 19th cent)  Felt damps pretty slowly especially without much weight,so you lose the crisp & total damping effect characteristic of the Viennese instruments.  I use chamois, and soak the chamois leather with WD40 (applied with fine paintbrush) and also coat that part of the wire.
     Best, Margaret Hood




-----Original Message-----
From: Wimblees@aol.com
To: caut@ptg.org
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 11:31:14 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: Fortepiano

In a message dated 12/12/03 10:22:29 AM Central Standard Time, atodd@UH.EDU 
writes:
List,

Well, we finally got our new Maene Fortepiano from Belgium
delivered yesterday. It looks fantastic and the harpsichord 
guy on the faculty loved it. "It has a really nice, clear 
bass" was one of the particular comments he made about it. 
It even arrived remarkably well in tune, considering where 
it came from!

Unbelievably though, it had no instruction/maintenance type of
manual with it! We're going to see if we can get one from
Belgium but if not, I'll order Margaret Hood's manual.

Just what I need. Something else to work on! :-) But at least,
it looks like it might be fun.

Avery 


______________________
Avery Todd, RPT
We have a Jacob Doll Forte. Last fall, at the beginning of the school year, I 
wanted to tune ti. But 2/3rds of the strings were broken. at first I thought 
the snapped because it got too hot in the room. But upon careful inspection I 
found that the strings had rusted at eh dampers. The damper pads are made of
chamois. Apparently it soaked up a lot of moisture during the summer, which
caused the strings to rust.

So a word of caution. If you're not going to use the forte for a while,
especially when it's hot and humid, remove the dampers. On mine it just lifts off.
I also tune every two weeks, just to keep it stable, even if it doesn't get
used. (Which is virtually never?)

Wim
Willem Blees, RPT
Piano tuner/technician
School of Music
University of Alabama