S&S D Duplex

[Mike and Jane Spalding]

Sarah,

Regarding tuning of the duplex:  Others with more experience may chime in here, but it seems unlikely to me that the duplexes were designed to be tuned to sevenths.  The few tuned duplexes I have taken the time to observe, were tuned to unisons, fifths, octaves, 12ths, etc.  I think these intervals would be more likely to make pleasing sounds, because each string and its duplex would have lower coincident partials (i.e. partials in the human audible range) than, say, a 7th, 6th, or 3rd.  So if you have room to move the aliquots a little towards the hitch pins and turn those sevenths into octaves, try it and let us know if/how the sound changes.

Mike

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Sarah Fox <sarah@gendernet.org>
To: Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2002 10:15 PM
Subject: Re: S&S D Duplex


> Hi Paul,
> 
> I have the exact same question regarding my '33 Wissner concert, which is
> very similar to the D.  There's a braid through the duplex from notes 36
> through 52 but not in the upper range.  My guess is that the prior owner
> and/or his tech thought the duplex sound was too harsh, perhaps in part
> because the hammers (to be replaced soon) were/are hard as mallets.
> 
> I was also wondering about the tuning of the duplex scale in that note range
> (the muted range).  Most of the duplex segments are tuned to sevenths, which
> I figure are intended to resonate with the next lowest unisons.  Is this
> normal?  The treble duplex is mostly octaves, which makes more sense to me.
> Is that how the D's duplex is tuned?
> 
> Thanks for any advice from the list!
> 
> Peace,
> Sarah
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Paul Chick (EarthLink)" <tune4@earthlink.net>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2002 8:48 PM
> Subject: S&S D Duplex
> 
> 
> > List Members:
> > The piano is a 70's S&S D, teflon throughout, with string braid run
> through
> > the duplex scales behind the bridge, in front of the alequates up into the
> > sixth octave.  I pulled one piece out from the high end as the customer
> > played the piano.  His immediate response was how much cleaner and more
> > powerful the fifth and sixth octave sounded.  He did not want the rest of
> > the braid removed "until I get use to the new sound."  He states that the
> > string braid has been in the piano since he purchased it.  It was sold to
> > him as new. It's been 2 years since that time.  Now he wants new hammers,
> > etc.  I intend to remove the braid and voice the new hammers accordingly.
> > Can anyone explain why the duplexes were muted; am I heading for more
> > trouble than I care to deal with?  Any suggestions/comments will be
> > appreciated.
> >
> > Paul Chick
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
> >
> 
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