superlightweight piano

[Stephen Airy]

--- Mark Story <mark.story@mail.ewu.edu> wrote:
> With current technology and materials, there is
> definitely a bottom limit
> with piano weight. In order to terminate the strings
> firmly and minimize
> harmonic energy loss to the terminating structure
> (plate and back), you must
> have mass. I suppose that with lighter stringing you
> could decrease the
> required mass, but at a cost of sound quality. 

I don't mind if it makes a normal spinet/console sound
like a concert grand in comparison, so long as the
tone is acceptable from at least middle C on up, and i
can tell what an A or B or C in the low bass is.  I'm
thinking a tone that mainly emphasizes the
fundamental, like what you get when you have
80-year-old bass strings that have dirt embedded in
the windings and the tone is dull.  It would sound
funny imo if you tried to make it sound anything like
a larger piano by allowing higher harmonics to ring
out.  There would probably be false beats all over the
place.

An
> interesting test of this
> approach is the old Baldwin Electropiano or Yamaha
> CP series. The early
> versions (Baldwin) had three-string unisons in the
> treble, and in place of
> the soundboard/bridge structure they had a
> piezo-electric pickup strip that
> took the place of the bridge. While working OK with
> the low energy
> requirements of the electronic pickup, I can't
> imagine an acoustic
> soundboard/bridge construction that would be
> sufficient to compare with a
> conventional piano. I suppose if you could settle
> for less power and thinner
> tone, you could use lighter stringing and support -
> but then you would just
> be re-inventing the fortepiano.
> 
> 
> Mark Story. RPT
> Eastern Washington University
> Cheney, Washington
> 
>  -----Original Message-----
> From: 	owner-pianotech@ptg.org
> [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]  On Behalf
> Of toto@fovea.pndr.upenn.edu
> Sent:	Wednesday, April 18, 2001 6:51 AM
> To:	pianotech@ptg.org
> Cc:	toto@fovea.pndr.upenn.edu
> Subject:	superlightweight piano
> 
> 
> > I'm thinking -- is it
> > possible to have a piano weigh under 100 pounds?
> > I was thinking a height of about 30 inches
> > and a width of about 51 inches and a weight under
> 85
> > pounds (50 preferred but don't think is possible
> --
> > doubtful if even under 100 is possible).
> 
> Stephen,
> 
> I like the idea of a super-lightweight piano. If the
> piano were reduced
> to the minimum components, no case, lightweight
> composite or titanium
> frame/plate/keybed, spruce soundboard, composite
> action frame, etc.
> The weight of the bass strings might be a
> significant part of the
> total weight.
> 
> You are doing the kind of thinking that expands the
> envelope.  Burt Rutan
> does this with airplanes (with extensive use of
> composite materials).
> I hope that someone will pick up this idea someday
> and run with it.
> 
> Larry Toto
> Philadelphia
> 


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