1836---Hmmmm Wasn't that pretty early in the history of the plate? Is this a partial plate? What kind of hammers does this instrument have? Are they leather or felt or a combination? In this country, pianos of this vintage are often in museums. Terry Neely, RTP chapter Richard Brekne wrote: > Hi folks. > > Well, I finally got around to opening up my 1836 (methinks) Broadwood > that I will be attempting to put back together and I have a few > questions I'd like to have some answers to. Number 1 and first and > formost... Was there any real crown built into the sound boards of these > things. I will describe what I have in front of me as best I can. > > Sitting at this square piano and looking over the more or less > triangular shaped sound board from that angle, you see the grain moving > off at about 45 degrees. There are ribs going at about 20 degrees, not > exactly all that much across the grain, and these lengths are broken by > three ribs that run straight out at 90 degrees which are found right > under the bridge area. Am I mistaken here or would this do little or > nothing to balancing cross grain and with grain stiffness ? Certainly > doesn't seem like a recipe for a compression crown in any case. > > The Bridge has that typical reverse in direction relative to sound board > grain for these... and in this the greater part of the bridge is more or > less at right angles to the grain, except in the treble area after where > it swings around and follows the grain. What was that discussion about > mass in the treble rim and stiffness in the bass rim ? There is also a > coupling from the board to the pin block in this area, presumably to > address both mass and stiffness. > > So... back to the original question. Are these boards meant to be > basically flat ?. Strings come off tomorrow and I can give you some more > info about what observable crown there is (real difficult to ascertain > from underneath here) and what down bearing looks like. > > Thanks for any advice / observations. > > RicB > > -- > Richard Brekne > RPT, N.P.T.F. > Bergen, Norway > mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
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