sanderson Bass strings/scale

[John Delacour]

At 2:02 PM -0800 11/30/01, Delwin D Fandrich wrote:

>Well, now I'm really confused. Just what did you mean when you wrote:
>
>"To change the wire gauges on a Steinway is deliberately to change the
>character of the tone -- and inevitably for the worse.  The long
>bridge on Steinways is correctly shaped and positioned for the
>Steinway sound, which comes from a relatively short, low-tension
>scaling.  In my opinion, it's the height of presumption to alter
>this.....

OK, let's get it clear.  I wrote this in a certain context, namely in 
response to a message reporting a drastic alteration of the wire 
gauges on the existing and original bridge and board of a Model O. 
The report reflected in no wise on your practice and my response was 
in no wise intended to diminish your work and practice, for which, 
from what I've heard from you, I have much admiration.  Here we had a 
case, reportedly, of someone considerably changing the loading and 
the stiffness of the strings, perhaps with the aim of getting closer 
to some "ideal" such as "even tension" and as a result not only 
adding pressure to the soundboard but also stiffening strings which 
were probably quite stiff enough, if not too stiff, to start with. 
Dale Erwin did not give details of the exact wire gauges that had 
been used but from the results that he reported on the two pianos 
with the modified gauges and later with the reversion to the original 
scale, it's pretty clear what sort of changes were made and that the 
effect was bad.

2.  I always measure the plain wire scale on every piano I restring, 
including Steinways.  In most cases I make some changes to even out 
the scale without altering the bridge.  Some pianos will allow more 
beneficial changes than others given the existing bridge; others will 
hardly benefit at all.  With Steinway grands the changes will be 
minimal, not because I think Steinway scaling is perfect, but because 
there's very little room for manoeuvre.

3.  Nearly all the grands and uprights I have rebuilt would certainly 
have benefited from a bridge in a different location and of a 
different shape, that I've known for twenty years, and the scales on 
some famous European pianos are appaling due to the bridge.  If my 
customers had bottomless purses, most of them would be advised to 
have the bridge altered.  I'd love to have a clientele of really rich 
musical people who would spend the money to have their piano made 
better than it was originally, but it's difficult enough to persuade 
them to have a frenchpolished glass finish at a minimum of 120 man 
hours.  The work you and others do with bridges, especially the 
transition bridge, interests me a lot.  I doubt if I'll follow your 
path at this stage in my career because I shall have little enough 
time to put my ideas into practice in the new grand where I don't 
have to worry about other makers' cast iron and rib-work getting in 
the way!  Another consideration here is the simple question of added 
value.  From what I've seen on the web, good second-hand pianos, 
particularly Steinways, are vastly more expensive in America than 
here.  The English are famous for buying cheap and if they can get a 
Bechstein grand ready "restored" in the best cellulose or polyester 
by Joe Bloggs for £6,000, they're going to think a lot before paying 
me £8,000 to rebuild one they already own.  With the price of Kawai 
well under £20,000 they also have a very good option.

To sum up, my own practice and yours would probably differ only in 
the detail if I were to take rebuilding to the lengths that you and 
others in America take it.  I've seen enough of and rebuilt enough of 
other makers' pianos and am content nowadays simply to make the very 
best job of what I choose to restore and concentrate on the new piano.

JD