[CAUT] 1/4 tone piano conversion

[Fred Sturm]

One other thing: hammers. You'd probably put together two sets and  
discard the outer hammers. No hammer maker is going to make cauls for  
that. And a standard set wouldn't sound so very good <G>.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu



On Dec 3, 2007, at 10:36 AM, Fred Sturm wrote:

> Yep, as Ron says, a new and differently designed bridge would be  
> needed. I don't think a new plate would be absolutely necessary, but  
> you'd sure have to do a big modification. You would need the top  
> note (C8) to be two octaves lower than it is (tuned to C6), so you'd  
> need close to 4x the speaking length. Might be possible to cut away  
> some plate and add a hitchpin rail lower down. You would probably do  
> away with cross stringing, and have it be straight strung, so no  
> need for a separate bass bridge, but you'd need to attach a new  
> hitchpin rail there as well.
> 	Sauter did a series of odd pianos in the 30's, including 1/8 and  
> 1/16 tone, for a world expo, especially for the works of a  
> particular Mexican composer whose name escapes me at the moment.  
> They showed the 1/16 tone at a couple PTG conventions - one octave  
> total over 96 notes. It has a bridge that slopes very, very  
> gradually, staying in the upper range of the board. 1/4 tone would  
> be less extreme, obviously, but you can't just change wire sizes on  
> a standard piano and manage to tune that way. You'd be raising or  
> lowering pitch one to two octaves at the extremes. Just not  
> physically possible. A big project. Sauter might be willing and able  
> to give you some specs that could be used as advice, a starting point.
> Regards,
> Fred Sturm
> University of New Mexico
> fssturm at unm.edu
>
>
>
> On Dec 3, 2007, at 9:01 AM, Ron Nossaman wrote:
>
>>
>>> Caut Listmembers,
>>> I have a request from the composer in residence here to convert a  
>>> Baldwin upright school-piano (late 70s early 80s vintage) into a  
>>> quarter-tone piano.  He suggested keeping C4 at standard pitch.  I  
>>> explained the need for rescaling and he still really wants the  
>>> entire piano permanently converted.
>>> Has anyone done this?  Are there string-scale people out there  
>>> willing to take re-scaling this on?  Has anyone programmed an ETD  
>>> to do this (sorry I only do ET & WT(s) aurally).  I have a  
>>> Verituner; has anyone programmed it for 1/4 tone tunings?
>>> Andrew C. Anderson
>>
>>
>> There's a bit more involved than changing string sizes. You'll need  
>> to change string lengths too, which in keeping C-4 at standard  
>> pitch, will put the new bridge well into the plate at the top end.  
>> So you'll be making a new plate too, with new soundboard and rib  
>> scale, new bridges, and a new string scale. It might get a little  
>> expensive.
>>
>> Come to think of it, you'll likely put the the bass bridge right up  
>> against the middle of the tenor bridge too, which might not work  
>> too well.
>>
>> Ron N
>