[CAUT] Bass bridge, string scale, cantilevered bridge, tone

[Jim Busby]

Hi Dave,

Ron would better answer this, but what I did was take it as close as I could w/o touching. (Yes, I did leave a bit of the cantilever. Ron is braver at plate alterations than I.) Also, make the strings with German loops and this gives you an effectively more flexible backscale. The conventional "French" loops are more rigid, and the German loops are equal to about 20mm more length, IMO. In fact, if you do nothing more than change to German loops you will see a noticeable difference in the bass! Vince and I are nearly always changing to German loops now on most everything. With the last 3 Ms I left the bridge alone, switched to German loops, and was pleased.

Jim




-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Porritt, David
Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 12:45 PM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Bass bridge, string scale, cantilevered bridge, tone

Jim:

Just a few minutes ago I was looking at an "M" and the bass bridge if it
were brought to the place where the cantilever is attached to the board
the lowest end of the bridge looks like it would be off the bridge root
and rubbing the plate.  What do you do with the last 4 unisons in that
case?

dp

David M. Porritt, RPT
dporritt at smu.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Jim Busby
Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 1:38 PM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Bass bridge, string scale, cantilevered bridge, tone

Alan,

Years ago when I had my first class from Del he said that he took a
small grand, reduced the soundboard area by 30-40% (That's what I recall
anyway) reduced the speaking length of the lower bass strings, then
actually had a BIGGER sounding piano! The proof was there to play. It
just sounded like a "bigger" sized piano. The Ms I've done sound more
like Ls, As or Os. But that, I guess, is just my opinion and the opinion
of everyone who has heard them. Can't prove a dang thing...

(AND DON'T WANT TO ARGUE...<G>)

Regards,
Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Alan McCoy
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 2:18 PM
To: College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>
Subject: [CAUT] Bass bridge, string scale, cantilevered bridge, tone

Hi Jim and Ron (and others),

I do not have enough first-hand experience with especially short-scale
instruments that have been recipient of the kind of treatment that the
Brodmann thread was about, namely new string scale with a shorter
speaking
length, longer backlength, no cantilever. But I am curious about what
kind
of tonal change I might anticipate if I were to rescale, say,  a Kawai
GE-1.

Would anyone be interested in describing what would be the likely tonal
result with these changes to this short-scale piano? I know words won't
likely do justice to it, but I'd be interested to hear anyway.

BTW, this isn't idle curiosity.

Thanks.

Alan


-- Alan McCoy, RPT
Eastern Washington University
amccoy at mail.ewu.edu
509-359-4627
509-999-9512