Aluminum Plates back

[pianoman]

What brand and model was it?
James Grebe
R.P.T. of the P.T.G. from St. Louis, MO. USA, Earth
Piano Service and Piano Periperals
Creator of Hardwood PLTR's and Custom Piano Benches
pianoman@inlink.com         If I wake up in the morning, it WILL be a great
day!

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> From: R. Goodale <rob.goodale@nau.edu>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Aluminum Plates
> Date: Tuesday, July 21, 1998 1:37 AM
> 
> I am curious to hear opinions regarding aluminum plates.  I have come
> across a few of these from time to time, and even recently sold such
> piano. I felt it was of high enough quality that I even invested a
> considerable amount of time and money into it with some new action
> parts, hammers, some case work, etc.  It was really quite a nice
> sounding piano when I finished it, not to mention a pleasure to move
> being at least a couple hundred pounds lighter then it's cast iron
> equal.
> 
> I have heard many techs argue that these plates are not capable of
> holding a good tune do to flexing. Others have claimed that it changes
> the accustics to some kind of undesireable degree. Yet I have not
> personally found this to be the case. This recent piano turned out to be
> one honey of an instrument.
> 
> My personal theory, (perhaps someone can support or rebute this), is
> that it may have simply been proven to be too expensive to manufacture.
> Aluminum is a rather expensive metal compared to the relative cheapness
> of gray cast iron. In fact, I could have probably made a nice piece of
> change extracting the plate and turning it in for cash for recycling.
> 
> So, is there really an inferiority to aluminum or are there some valid
> technical points against it? Just curious.
> 
> Rob Goodale, RPT