S&S D Duplex

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Caught" <caute@bigpond.com>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: November 21, 2002 5:14 AM
Subject: Re: S&S D Duplex


>
> I do admit that tuning them makes the piano sound so much better but, I
> truly believe that if a system had been developed that was a cross between
> the Baldwin's adjustable hitch system and a duplex type system you would
> have a much better, clearer and richer toned piano.


Hi Tony,

I played around with this idea for a while, a few years back. First we tried
simply drilling the hitches at a calculated point but found even with hand
assembly it was impossible to hold tolerances tight enough and the slightly
off-pitch backscale was worse than the way off-pitch backscale. Well, no
great surprise there....

Then we worked on a few ideas which made the vertical hitch adjustable fore
& aft. A couple of these actually worked quite well. At least they did for
the short term -- we didn't try testing any of them over long periods of
time. Needless to say, the best of them would have been frightfully
expensive to produce -- even in quantity.

In the end we came to the conclusion that the benefits of the vertical hitch
outweighed any potential benefit the tuned backscale might give us and the
project was discontinued.

Del