[CAUT] Weikert felt; was 80 year old S&S hammers

[Delwin D Fandrich]

| -----Original Message-----
| From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On 
| Behalf Of Don Mannino
| Sent: April 16, 2009 9:41 AM
| To: caut at ptg.org
| Subject: Re: [CAUT] Weikert felt; was 80 year old S&S hammers
| 
|| 
| Where the flexible board / low tension scale relationship to 
| this breaks down, for me, is to consider the old Mason & 
| Hamlin pianos.  Correct me if I'm wrong ye bellymen, but my 
| understanding is that those pianos had rather thick and stiff 
| soundboards, and what we all love about them is their singing 
| quality and expressive nature.  It was a different approach 
| than Steinway, and may have kept them out of the concert hall 
| to a large degree, but they were beautiful, expressive pianos.

No, Don, the principle does not break down because of what some may see as an
exception. GM--with the early Corvair--and VW both proved that rear-engined cars
have some significant handling problems. Having all that weight hanging out at
the rear of the car presented some inertial problems that rendered these cars
unsafe in the hands of the unwary. There was a principle working in there. Even
so, after many years of effort Porsche has managed to work around this principle
by throwing rather huge sums of money and engineering at it. This does not
negate the principle it just demonstrates that with enough design and
engineering expertise it could be manipulated. 


| 
| It is also possible to make a light and flexible board with a 
| higher tension scale, and match them through very careful 
| setting of a light downbearing load. So there are more 
| variables to the design process than just a simple dichotomy 
| of "high tension / stiff board" vs. "low tension / flexible board."

Yes there are more variables to the design process than "just a simple dichotomy
of high tension/stiff board vs. low tension/flexible board." This remains,
however, a fundamental principle from which one can begin to understand the
dynamics between the scale and soundboard and the hammers by which these are
driven. When attempting to understand the complexities of any working system it
is usually a good idea to start by understanding the fundamental principles of
that system. Understanding the basic principles of the scale/soundboard
relationship will help one predict the type of performance that will be inherent
in the finished piano. 

Can other combinations of scale tensions and soundboard characteristics be made
to work to achieve similar levels of performance? Yes, they can. This is a
principle, not an absolute law. But when choosing to deviate from this, or any
other, basic principle the wise designer will first want to understand those
basics. From that understanding the designer will then understand how to make
any deviations and/or compromises necessary to achieve his or her desired
result. Can the results be made pleasing even when deviating from basic
principles? Of course--at least in the hands of skilled builders and
technicians. But there are more than a few pianos around bearing witness to the
fact that understanding basic principles is important.

As well, even when a design that deviates from known principles is ultimately
successful it may take extra time and effort on the part of the factory and,
later, on the part of a skilled technician to achieve a pleasing level of
performance. And even then, while pleasing, the result will not be the same. I
don't mean the result will be bad, it will just not be the same. 

Del