Bird-Cages/Fogger/Snide remarks

[John Delacour]

At 5:30 PM -0700 12/22/01, John Musselwhite wrote:
>At 10:28 PM 12/21/01 +0000, John D. wrote:
>
>>Brinsmead used underdampers in the 1860's and his patents show 
>>underdampers but
>>he continued to produce overdampers even for very fine pianos until 
>>quite late in the
>>century.
>
>I mentioned this a couple of months ago, but one of the finest 
>upright pianos I've ever worked on was a Brinsmead Overdamper with 
>the screw-stringer type tuning arrangements. Not only did it tune 
>very nicely and had the rather unique tuning pin arrangement, but 
>every piece of felt or cloth was neatly sewn to the wood to which it 
>was attached, and every piece of leather had a tiny brass nail in 
>it. All of the "tropicalizing" work was beautifully done and 
>everything was perfectly aligned. Almost all of the strings were 
>still original and you could still see the plating on them. It was 
>generally in excellent condition and was magnificent at this age so 
>it must have been incredible when it was new.
>
>I really liked the arrangement with the tuning pins. It was much 
>better than the Mason & Hamlin type, especially when it comes to 
>changing strings because no knots are involved.
>
>Playability, tuning and damping were perfectly acceptable as well. I 
>took some snap shots of it, though they aren't developed. If 
>anyone's interested I'll get them done and if they turn out I'll 
>scan them in and upload them to the Yahoo Piano-technicians group 
>file area.

I'd be very interested to see them.  I have never come across the 
patent tuning system but tuners who have say, like you, that it works 
well.  I looked at the patent for it a few weeks ago in London but 
took no copies.  Next time I'm there I'll do so.  These patents are 
all in great leather-bound books that have to be borought from the 
vaults and copying is a chore.

The 1880 Brinsmead I have at home is a work of art and had one little 
dent on it when I bought it.  The overdamper action is Brinsmead's 
own and the soft pedal shift the action as on a grand.  Both 
Brinsmead and Blüthner also produced underdamper pianos with the 
dampers on a separate steel rail screwed to the plate.  These are a 
joy to regulate and dismantle because the hammer screws face the 
soundboard as they do in overdamper pianos, but of course they both 
have the shift pedal.  Why this design was not taken up by other 
makers and perpetuated, I have no idea.

Brinsmead is also the only maker I know besides Steinway who 
impregnated his hammers, but they were doped in the middle where the 
core meets the yellow undercover.

JD