[wrong word] and multi-piece rims

[John Delacour]

At 10:09 AM -0800 4/3/02, Delwin D Fandrich wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
>  > Let me carry this a tad further though for clarification of the issue. I
>should think that you could never increase the mass of a rim too much -
>except of course regarding cost considerations and/or possibly aesthetic
>consideration.
>-----
>
>Perhaps. But there are also some practical limits beyond which the results
>will be neither audible nor measurable.

I've been messing with two very different 6' grand in the past three 
days: the Kirkman that came in today and that I've mentioned in 
another thread, and the Ibach which is being prepared for the 
experimental soundboard.  Now Ibach is quite well thought of, and at 
the time this one was built they had the Royal Appointment to the 
Emperor Franz Joseph.  The framing is a fairly massive made up affair 
of knotty pine and the outer rim is partly pine and partly one of 
those woods they knew "nobody would ever see" -- probably birch or 
even willow!  The whole thing is tastefully dressed up in rosewood, 
of course.

Now the soundboard seating for this piano is 35 mm wide all round and 
is mainly of pine with no care at all for grain direction or timber 
quality.  However at the treble hollow this changes to good quality 
maple.  What this suggests to me is that Ibach could see the need to 
use maple on the high treble but saw no point in wasting good wood 
round the remaining perimeter.  Whether he was right I'll never know 
because I'm replacing the pine with poplar and the soundboard will be 
nothing like his anyway.

The Kirkman is a completely different machine built almost entirely 
of oak including the bits nobody's going to see and generally far 
more massive, with a 32mm outer rim and a very solid belly rail 
arrangement in contrast to Ibach's pine and beech cantilever.  The 
soundboard is also 9-10 mm as opposed to Ibach's 6-7 mm.

Both have 3-4 part outer rims with rounded corners.  Neither have 
transoms, chines or masts or any other boaty bits and pieces!

It's interesting to be working at the same moment on two pianos that 
are so different and at the same time to have two Steinway model Os 
in rebuilding, which are very different again.  There is no doubt in 
my mind that the Kirkman will be the best of the lot not only for 
build quality and scaling but also for tone.

JD