Ideal speaking length of A-0

[Stephen Airy]

A YC PG-150 baby grand (4'11") seems to have a length of 43.5".  My mom's
piano sounds horrible in most of the bass section.  I wonder if the tail
lengths are too short...  it has almost no sustain, and is only 4 years
old, and isn't much worse than when it was new.

Question....  How would you figure ideal length in verticals?  for
example, a 37" spinet that is 57" wide vs a 45" studio that's 60" wide vs
a 52" professional at 63", and a 60" upright with 72" width?  I've seen
variations of several inches in the same size piano.  Personally, I like
a sound thath as a fairly good amount of sustain, and has a lot of
richness in the upper harmonics, and preferably also have those harmonics
be "in tune" with the fundamental.

----- Original message -----
From: "Delwin D Fandrich" <pianobuilders@olynet.com>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2003 17:40:06 -0800
Subject: Re: Ideal speaking length of A-0


----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Trout" <brian_trout@hotmail.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: February 22, 2003 3:37 PM
Subject: Ideal speaking length of A-0


> What is the ideal SPEAKING length of A-0, or whatever you choose to call
> that lowest string in the scale?

That depends on the length of the piano.


>
> Another tech and I were discussing this and he was of the opinion that it
is
> desirable to have the longest speaking length possible.

And most of the early piano designers would have agreed with him. And it
is
one of the reasons why the low bass in most small pianos sounds so bad.


>
> My question is, if one were able to move that bridge out into the
soundboard
> as far as you wanted to, where would it cease to be a good thing to
shorten
> the speaking length any further?  When moving the bridges out into the
> soundboard, how far is too far?  At what point would you be harming the
> quality of the sound as opposed to improving it?  How much tail length is
> enough?  Would there be any relationship between the backscale length and
> the speaking length?  (a ratio, perhaps?)

It is a complex question and there is no simple, easy answer. Our
practice
in remanufacturing work is to move the bridge forward as far as practical
without grinding too much iron off of the plate. I haven't seen an
existing
piano yet in which this would be too far.

Beyond this it will take a feature-length article or two to fully explore
the question fully. (I'm working on one, but don't know yet when or if
I'll
try to have it published.) And I'm not up to going into the whole
question
here. Beyond what I've already written, that is. Check the archives.

And beyond that I'll once again be doing my all-day seminar on how the
piano
works at the coming Convention in Dallas. This will be one of the topics
discussed and illustrated.

Del

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-- 
  Stephen Airy
  stephenairy@fastmail.fm