Rescaling

[Farrell]

David and Al Sanderson do a bass string & rescaling class at the
conventions. Very interesting. Shows data from many rescaling jobs, showing
improvements over the original scales. He has rescaled several pianos for me
and made radical changes. One thing I do remember David saying is that the
string scales on big Steinways actually are pretty decent, and even when
they rescale them (he showed a bunch of before and after data sets), the end
result is more a bit or tweaking here and there, nothing significant. I know
very little about rescaling, and I'm not afraid to trust an expert's opinion
when a significant change is recommended to the original design of a piano.
But I think is says a lot about the Steinway string scales when the
Sandersons say they are pretty nice scales.

Hey - did you catch that - I paid Steinway a compliment! Miracles do happen!

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Love" <davidlovepianos@hotmail.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2001 12:53 AM
Subject: Rescaling


> List:
>
> I have begun having the pianos I'm restringing rescaled (or at least
> recalculated).  I notice, at least with the company doing the calculations
> for me, that they often set the scale with a slightly higher tension.
> Instead of starting with #13, for example, the rescaled instrument will
> start with #13 1/2 and procede through a higher range of gauges, ending
with
> perhaps 21 or 22 instead of 19 or 20 (this happened recently on a Steinway
> B).  I would like to know what others' experience is in this area.  Can a
> higher tension scale "choke" the board?  When is it preferable or not
> preferable?  Are there varying philosophies about scaling or are the
pianos
> I've had rescaled just been wrong?
>
> David Love
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