bush and lane

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: September 01, 2002 5:40 AM
Subject: Re: bush and lane


> Greg gave pretty much the answers I would give. One additional thing.
Although I have not run across a Bush & Lane grand, I service a B&L upright.
A truely magnificent piano. Very impressive. I can only assume that your
little grand has tremendous potential.
>
> Terry Farrell



Terry & Ned,

Take care on those assumptions, Terry. We are in the middle of both a B&L
(5' 9") grand and a large B&L upright just now. The upright is typical of
B&L, massively and wonderfully built. When completed it will surely
outperform the grand in every aspect except, possibly, action control. And
we will be able to sell it for perhaps half of what we will be able to get
for the grand.

The grand is typical of the B&L grands I've encountered. A good instrument,
but not nearly the design level of their uprights. It has some obvious
design flaws--the tuning pin field and the stringing scale among them--that
surely should have been worked out before the piano was released to the
public. I have wondered if the grands might not have been designed by
someone else and built in another factory altogether.

As I said, a good piano but not at the level we've come to expect from their
uprights.

Del

PS: And in answer to Ned's question: Yes, it will respond to some judicious
rescaling work. As well, in the grand we're doing the bass bridge was
mounted on an extreme cantilever giving the whole bass section a very short
backscale. I was able to pop the bass bridge assembly off the soundboard
without causing any damage to the board, I then removed the bass bridge,
shortened the cantilever by about 25 mm (I couldn't totally remove it for a
variety of reasons) and put the bridge back on. The bridge is now mounted
about 5 mm higher (by virtue of a maple spacer) to accommodate vertical
hitches on the bass hitch pin riser. Should end up with quite a decent bass.