Better Bass Scale for M&H A

[Ron Nossaman]

>Hi Ron,
>               If you are going that far in re scaling, I would full agree 
> with you.  However the German loop idea, is to gain some performance with 
> little effort, where radical re scaling and re design is not practical.

Hi Roger,
Radical, huh? How is it that getting a string maker to make a different 
kind of loop than the rest of their customers use not radical? You must 
have access to a different species of string winder than I'm familiar with. 
But then, I haven't tried that one, so it may not be a problem at all. 
HAHAhahahahahahah....

Sorry. Hysterical laughter aside, I responded to your question to Del about 
moving the bass bridge. While I can't speak for him, if I'm going to be 
allowed to move the bridge, I'm putting in vertical hitches as well, with 
standard loops on the bass strings. With the vertical hitch, the German 
loop would be a stiffer termination than the standard loop (nomenclature?). 
A doubled German loop would almost entirely negate any termination benefit 
the vertical hitch offers.


>The acid test would be to order a new set of strings with traditional 
>loops.  But I'm not about to do that on my nickle.
>Regards Roger

Yes it would, since rescaling, with new strings and hammers and bridge 
notching already puts the piano in an entirely new ball park than it was 
before the work was done. German loop or not, I still wouldn't expect much 
out of the 45mm low bass back scale on a M&H A. I did one a few years back, 
what at the time was the Full Monte. I floated the soundboard in the bass, 
moved the bridge, and installed vertical hitches (along with all the cutoff 
bars, bracing, new rib scale and the rest). The piano sounds terrific, 
except for the very low bass. I was hesitant to grind away the plate there 
for that extra 20mm of back scale.,Though I got some improvement by moving 
the bridge, and probably more with the vertical hitches, it still didn't 
please me. Next time, I'll not only grind away more plate so I can move the 
bridge further down, I'll also add an extension to the back of the bass 
riser and move the low 6 or 8 (whatever) bass hitches back onto it. The 
difference should be dramatic. Under the circumstances, I find it a little 
hard to believe that the German loop by itself could make that much 
difference. Again, I haven't tried it, so it's just an opinion, and I've 
been wrong plenty of times before.

Ron N