glass soundboard, was Re: electrical ears

[Östen Häggmark]

>By the way, speaking of soundboards with different materials, I worked on a
>piano once with a steel soundboard. The piano was made in Sweden, and only=
 2
>were made. At the time I was working on it, I made a bunch of pictures, but
>then someone stole the camera. The sound of that piano was very much like=
 the
>hollow sound of the steel drums of the Caribean. Very interesting. The
>customer was not happy with me because I charged more than she thought I
>should have to repair the piano, and so I have never been back to tune it.
> When I first looked at the piano, the customer gave me the patents for the
>soundboard, and I made copies of it. Appearantly her grandfather invented=
 the
>thing back at the turn of the century, and this piano was the only one in
>this country.=20
>
>Willem Blees  RPT
>St. Louis =20

Dear mr Blees,

  Do you remember the name of the piano? In the book *Five Lectures on the
Acoustic of the Piano* edited by Anders Askenfelt and issued by the Royal
Academy of Music in Sweden, mr Harald A Conklin Jr in his article mentions
a piano with a steel soundboard called Frankel, built and constructed in
Sweden. There is also a picture of a cover of a booklet, found in the old
files of an American piano company. In the booklet, written in english and
dated 1923, the piano is described by the constructor himself, Fridolf
Frankel, who was a Swedish piano builder. Obviously at least one piano
reached America and the booklet suggests that there were plans for selling
(perhaps making) the piano over there.

  If it's true that there was only 2 made then I have seen the second piano
here in an apartment in =D6stermalm, Stockholm, where I was called to tune
the piano about eight years ago. The bass bridge was completely broken, so
the instrument was untunable. Later I lost the adress to the owner of the
piano, which grieves me to this day. I guess that this piano is lost for
the world.

  If you have any further information what happened to the Frankel family
or their projects in the USA I would appriciate very much to take part of
it. We have a projekt here where we try to gather information of the sadly
deceased piano industry in Sweden.=20

Best regards
=D6sten H=E4ggmark
Stockholm, Sweden=20
email: haggmark@mailbox.calypso.net=20