88 note pianos -Reply

[Kenneth W. Burton]

On Fri, 15 Mar 1996 EHILBERT@midd.middlebury.edu wrote:

> Jack said:
> To add to Vince's comment, I was taught that the top three notes
> were important in order to extend the bridge and put a load on it.
> Having a loaded bridge that ex
> better sounding note.  Didn't someone do that on the bass
> end-add a string or two that could be tuned, but no hammers to
> play t to extend the loaded portion of
> the bridge.
>
> Jack            jack_reeves@byu.edu
>
>
> Yes, Jack, Kawai has done that on some of their large uprights such as the US-75
> Perhaps others have done it as well to increase the tone on the last actually
> played notes, but I don't know about that.  Obviously Boesenoerfer has added to the bass end
on their Imperial grands, and there is not question but what their
> bass sound nice, especially in the normal bass range.  The lowest added bass
> notes are all that musical to my ear, but no doubt they will get more use in the
> future.  As for the top end, unless someone finds a dramatic way to improve the
> tone of those top notes, it would appear to me tht we have pretty well reached
> the top of the usable limit up there.  But then again, as soon as someone
> decides that there is no further to go, someone does it, so we'll wait and see.
> Ed Hilbert
>
      Heintzman of Canada added some extra strings between the notes at
the tenor break. For the same reason, no doubt.

      Ken Burton, Calgary, Alberta