Impressive Steinway Upright

Farrell mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com
Sat, 14 Sep 2002 22:32:27 -0400


A cut-off bar is a piece of wood, sometimes solid, sometimes laminated, that, on a grand, has one end located about 1/4 to 1/2 the way down the straight (bass) side of the rim, and the other end attached to the belly rail perhaps a foot or more from the bass end. The cut-off bar is part of the inner rim of the piano and effectively (or at least as it is designed) terminates the soundboard at that point. The soundboard actually extends all the way to the forward bass corner, but does not have an acoustic role - that portion of the board is cosmetic. As a very broad generality, cheap, small pianos do not have cut-off bars, better pianos often do. Del and/or some others could explain the hows and whys of it, but all I am willing to say here is that it helps the soundboard do its job better. A big laminated bar is just that. Some cut-off bars are just a 1x2 or so solid piece of lumber. I wonder how effective that is. I should think that if there is a good reason to make a thick massive rim, then there would also be some logic to making the cut-off bar as massive as the rest of the rim (or at lest more than a 1x2). You can have the same thing on an upright. Most I have seen on uprights have been a smaller solid piece of hardwood. The one on this Steinway has quite a thick cross section (I didn't measure it).

That leads me to a question I have thought of many times. Rather than putting a cut-off bar on a piano - my thoughts are usually of a grand - why not just bend the darn rim where you would otherwise have the bar and have a continuous rim run right into and be part of the top portion of the belly rail. That way the inner rim would run from the high treble front corner of the board, around the outside sides of the piano, and continue right across the front of the board to the goofy belly-rail-soundboard-extendo-thingee where there are no dampers (what on earth is that part of the belly rail called - that little extendo box type jag in the belly rail?). That way the rim would be one continuous bent & laminated chunk that would only be broken by that high treble thingee (see last sentence). And actually, you could run the inner rim that is part of the belly rail right to the high treble side rim, but you just wouldn't want to attach the soundboard to it (you would want to make it a tad shorter - so the box extendo thingee can do its job). We want to make the belly one solid structure (as I understand it), and I have always wondered why on earth pianos have a separate belly rail. What a great way to weaken the whole assembly.

While I am at it, why have wooden beams on the bottom of the inner rim. Wouldn't an underbelly plate be just the ticket? No beams. No tension resonator. Just a cast iron (or whatever) plate. It could run along the entire belly rail and the inside side of the inner rim. Or maybe even a combination of wood and metal - I guess the wooden beams are kinda nice for nose bolt attachment points.

I'm probably full of bologna here, but these are concerns of mine.

That's all.

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alan R. Barnard" <mathstar@salemnet.com>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2002 5:23 PM
Subject: Re: Impressive Steinway Upright


> What, please, is "a big laminated cut-off bar?"
> 
> Alan Barnard
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2002 2:27 PM
> Subject: Impressive Steinway Upright
> 
> 
> > I am the happy new owner of an 1892 Steinway 54" upright piano. It is
> beautifully worn out and ready for remanufacture. It is impressive. It has
> full sostenuto and a full grand-style 2-inch thick bent hardwood rim for the
> soundboard and a big laminated cut-off bar. The plate extends to the piano
> bottom and has a couple-inch wide flange that bolts to the bottom of the
> piano (the flange is 90 degrees to the plate). I haven't taken it apart yet,
> but I imagine it has the upper pinblock flange as well (my 1900 S&S upright
> has this).
> >
> > It won't happen tomorrow, but someday this will indeed be quite a piano.
> Anyone know what models have the bent rim? Why and when did Steinway stop
> using the bent rim. The only other bent rim I have ever seen on an upright
> was on a Bush & Lane.
> >
> > Terry Farrell
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
> 
> _______________________________________________
> pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives


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