>On Apr 18, 2009, at 1:14 PM, Ron Nossaman wrote:
>
>>>>
>>>>In both the piano in Reno, and the one in Rochester, Ron used a
>>>>stock Samick laminated *panel*, not belly. The string scale,
>>>>bridges, rib scale, cutoff bar, and whatever additional bracing
>>>>he did to the rim were his own, and decidedly not stock. Yes, I
>>>>was impressed.
>>> I thought the one in Reno was based on a rim with board already
>>>glued in (ribs as well) and the stock plate. Then he made
>>>modifications, including thinning the edges of the board and
>>>fooling with front bearing, etc, etc. Maybe I got it wrong.
>>>Certainly the one in Rochester was more his own.
>>
>>Or maybe I did. I'm old, and lose track. Maybe he'll post in and
>>straighten us both out. In any case, what he did to the piano was
>>far beyond anything I'd call "prep".
>>
>>Ron N
>
My recollection (and my memory is also a little hazy after 9
years, though I have a pretty vivid memory of that particular piano)
is that Ron O told me he had taken a stock Samick piano and thrown
away the action. Obviously he was using it to show off his own
action. He did some modifications . . .
Fred and all,
What you are recalling is the very first piano with our action from
2000. The piano which came to Reno was a totally new piano, with a
rim which was specially pressed for us. While it was pressed in the
same rim press as the Samick 225, that's where the similarity ended.
The standard Samick case used all Luaun (which seems to be getting
called Mahogany recently), with a veneer of rock maple on the inner
surface of both the inner and outer rim to make it look like the
whole case was made from rock maple (the black painted surface of the
underside of the rim helped here). However, the rims which were
pressed for us were made entirely from rock maple. The belly rail and
back beams where also 100% rock maple. Furthermore, the main body of
the belly rail was 60 mm thick (a Steinway D belly rail is 30 mm).
The plate was supplied completely undrilled and primed only. The
soundboard was supplied as a panel. The bass and treble string scale
was completely of my own design with new bridge designs. A large
soundboard cut-off was fitted, but there was no treble cut-off in the
Reno piano. The Rochester piano had a treble and bass cut-off. There
was no soundboard weighting on the piano at Reno, but the Rochester
piano had I-ribs and weighting. Both pianos had a laminated panel
made from 100% spruce. The number 5 piano we built for Sydney
Conservatorium has an I-rib board with a solid panel, and is much
less stable in tuning compared to our other 225 pianos with laminated
panels. I am convinced there is no tonal downside to using a
laminated panel provided that it is made from all spruce. The only
difference between the laminated and solid panel boards seems to be
that the solid board has relatively lousy tuning stability.
Nevertheless, Geoff Pollard at Sydney Con found that our no. 5 is
more stable than the Steinway Ds at the Con, but our laminated
panelled instruments are better again. Other features of my own
design on the piano at Reno included the perimeter trenching of the
soundboard panel, the chamfering of the inner rim width adjacent to
the lowest bass note. The agraffes were modified Kawai while the
front capo terminations were all hardened bars. The front duplex
design was my own. The pin block was epoxy fitted and envelope
sealed. The standard plate horn to belly rail strut was retained on
the Reno piano, with an additional strut added at the capo. The
Rochester piano has three new plate to belly rail struts, one at the
horn and two at the capo section breaks. The touch block detents and
dags were revised for both pianos. The plate mounting system was our
version of the Baldwin system. The bridge caps in the Reno piano had
minor splitting in the top two sections. I found it before the piano
left Sydney but I had to let it go since I was out of time to do
anything about it before the exhibit. At Reno I showed Ron Nossaman,
but as far as I know nobody picked it up. When we brought the piano
back to Sydney we pulled it down, built our first multi-laminated
bridge caps and fitted them to the piano before selling it.
Its amazing how many critics have talked down our pianos by claiming
that I've just fiddled with a Samick. Steinway was getting their
plates from Kelly long before they purchased the plant, but no-one
would claim that their piano wasn't a Steinway. One of the leading
German manufacturers is getting rims pressed by Samick (I'm not going
to say who it is, so don't ask), but that manufacturer claims to be
making an all-German piano. One of the Japanese makers is getting
plates poured in China, but there's nothing in their brochure and
no-one's talking about it. But the piano is still regarded as all
Japanese. This whole 'country of origin' matter is in my opinion just
more hogwash from some in the industry who like to feed on prejudice
for marketing advantage.
All I can say to the critics is that our I-rib soundboards are
keeping their stiffness and tone exceptionally well, and they look
likely to outlast anything from the CC camp. A high end concert grand
here in a major Australian city is just four years old and the
soundboard has totally collapsed. The collapse is so severe that
pianists seem to unanimously hate the piano. That's how I heard about
it - many pianists had complained to me about the piano, so I sought
and received permission to inspect it. I inspected it late last year
and the downbearing had sunken to the point that it is negative to
almost exactly the same angle as we set the boards in the positive
when the pianos are first strung. This piano is such a disaster. I
advised the orchestra's administrators and offered to supply the
photographs I have taken along with my consultancy services, but they
have chosen not to put in a warranty claim (there was one year
remaining last year). This is pure madness and I believe the whole
matter is a complete disgrace. Anyhow, I can do nothing further to
promote the truth in this matter. The world very often seems to turn
its back on the truth, and it seems to be happening once again.
I suppose we need only look at history to note that nothing is likely
to change in the state of human affairs. Stupidity always seems to
prevail.
Ron O.
--
OVERS PIANOS - SYDNEY
Grand Piano Manufacturers
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Web http://overspianos.com.au
mailto:ron at overspianos.com.au
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