[pianotech] Grand Treble Bell

Don pianotuna@accesscomm.ca
Fri, 13 Sep 2002 14:03:12 -0600


Hi John,

The Young Chang folks for a while made a 200 cm grand that had "the bell".
It was quite unusual as in the unwound strings it had one loop and one tied
off string per unison. I have only one client with one--and it is one of my
favorite pianos to work on. I wish they had kept that model.

At 12:57 PM 9/13/02 -0600, you wrote:
>I didn't see any other responses to this, so here goes.
>
>At 09:10 PM 08/09/02 -0700, Del wrote:
>>Does this item have a specific / proper name?
>>
>>
>>If there is, I don't know it. I've always heard it referred to as "the
bell."
>
>US Patent #314740 - Mar 31, 1885  CFT Steinway - Grand Treble Bell.
>
>In "The Steinway Saga", Fostle mentions that the bell was inspired by the 
>"Helmholtz Resonator" and indeed, I've also heard the treble bell called by 
>that name, though it's a misnomer.
>
>Steinway wasn't the only company using the bell, despite the patent. 
>Yesterday I had the pleasure(?) of tuning an extremely worn-out 5 foot 
>something 1902 Schomacher with steel beams instead of wooden ones 
>underneath as well as a totally worn-out Steinway-style action inside. It 
>too had a treble bell in it just like the larger Steinways.
>
>Incidentally, this little grand had the shortest backscale in the bass of 
>any piano I've ever seen. So short that the loop windings appeared to be 
>shorter than usual to keep them from reaching the bridge. Other than that 
>and the steel beams it looked very much like a Steinway from the rim right 
>down to the plate that had "Duplex Scale" cast into it, though there were 
>no rear duplexes and no evidence of there having been any before it was 
>re-whatevered sometime in the past.
>
>Are there many of these Schomachers around? I'd read about them somewhere, 
>but had never seen one before.
>
>                 John
>
>
>John Musselwhite, RPT    -     Calgary, Alberta Canada
>http://www.musselwhite.com  http://canadianpianopage.com/calgary
>Pianotech IRC chats Tuesday and Thursday nights and Sunday Mornings
>http://www.bigfoot.com/~kmvander/ircpiano.html
>
>
>_______________________________________________
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>
>

Regards,
Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.M.T., R.P.T.

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