Need a Mason Expert

[Delwin D Fandrich]

stanwood wrote:
> 
> Many of us noticed that the rescaling of the recently made Mason & Hamlin
> BBs with the addition of wound bichords at the bottom of the understrung
> section created a poor tone in that section even though the graphs of
> inharmonicity were "Improved".  The BB I saw at the Orlando Institute was
> back to the old scale with steel strings all the way down the treble section
> and it sounds better.
> 
> David C. Stanwood
> 


David,

Yes well, just like with the sometimes inappropriate changes made to
action geometry, not all rescaling work is done correctly. That
“improved” BB scale was a good example of relying a bit too much on
computer generated numbers and graphs and not enough on experience and a
knowledge of piano scale design. 

I fairness to whoever generated the numbers for that scale, the
stringing scale wasn’t the only thing wrong with the acoustic design of
that piano.

—ddf