I would play those extra notes on the Bosey, in fact I'm working on writing an arrangement of an old hymn in which I am very generous with the 8va's and ledger lines below the bass clef. I was wondering -- although I don't have the money right now and probably won't for the next few years, what do you think would be the chance that I could get S&S to make a custom grand piano, say, 14 feet 7 inches long, with a range from C-1 to C9 (121 keys)? I was thinking it may have a C-1 speaking length of 12 feet or 12 feet 6 inches, and an A0 speaking length of, maybe... 10 feet 8 inches. With that size, do you think it would be likely to have the lowest wound bichord be at C1 and the lowest plain trichord at C2 (if the break is at B1/C2), or where do you think they'd be? Also speaking of extra notes in the bass, I learned the hard way not to try to get F0 on a 4'11" baby grand. If anyone wants a small 10- to 15-second clip of me trying that on my mom's YC PG-150, I'd be happy to encode it to mp3 and send it to you. Let's just say, though, that a Wurlitzer 1170 series would blow that piano off the stage when I did that... :) By the way, if there is NO way I could get 10 octaves, I could settle for 8 and a half (C0 to G8). Contrary to what Bruce Stevens in Bellflower, CA, says, 88 keys (or even 97) just isn't enough for my style of playing. :) One last thing: i had an interesting dream of a large grand piano last night... It was a large grand (at least 9 or 10 foot, maybe longer). What was interesting about it was the fact that the bass strings were BEHIND the treble strings. As in... know where the tenor end of the treble bridge is? The bass strings were all BEHIND that (No strings crossed over). I thought it was very weird. Now, how would they PLAY/BUILD a piano like that??!! I'm curious about something: What do you think would be the best possible scale it'd be possible to have in a small upright that, say, is 39 inches tall and 60 inches wide? (by scale I mean speaking length, # of notes on bass bridge, start of bichord and trichord strings). Provided that there's a way to have a halfway decent backlength and whatever, would it be possible to have an A1 speaking length of, say, 45 or 48 inches, start the bichords at note A1, the trichords at D#3 and have the break at D3/D#3? If I am wrong, then what books would you recommend I look into buying that could help educate me on stringing scales and piano manufacturing? (If "88 Keys - the Making of the Steinway Piano" gives detailed step-by-step directions on how to build a Steinway model D concert grand from scratch using the Bosendorfer Imperial scale, I might be interested in looking into buying a copy of that book... :) --- Delwin D Fandrich <pianobuilders@olynet.com> wrote: > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Wimblees@AOL.COM > To: pianotech@ptg.org > Sent: November 02, 2001 12:27 PM > Subject: Re: 89 note scale > > > The concept of adding another string, or strings, > beyond A0, is to give more length bridge. That is > the reason behind Bosendorfer's extra notes in the > bass. Sure, it's impressive to have those added > notes, but how many people actually play them? From > what I was told, by adding more notes to the bass, > it pushed the last octave, A0 - A1, closer to the > middle of the soundboard, where it could produce a > bigger and more defined sound. > > Wim > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > Yes, I've heard that as well, but I don't believe > it. Surely the designer can put the bridge any place > he/she wants it to be. If you want the lowest notes > to cross the bridge closer to the middle of the > soundboard, simply put them there. And if it is > desirable for the bridge to be longer then just make > it longer. There is no need to put strings on it. > > No, I expect the extra notes were added because some > composer or performer wanted them. Once that first > piano was designed and built it would have been > relatively easy to continue building it. And why > not? It's great marketing even if of little > practical value -- although I imagine there were > pianists like Oscar Peterson around back then as > well. > > Del > > > > > > > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Find a job, post your resume. http://careers.yahoo.com
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