Recycled technology-cutoff bar

Overs Pianos sec@overspianos.com.au
Sat, 1 Jan 2005 22:01:35 +1100


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Terry, Dale and all,

 From what can be seen, that grand looks like a pretty well thought 
out design, with a better distribution of back beams and a generously 
dimensioned cross beam. And the brand name is?

Dale wrote;
>   Buy the way what is the purpose of the wooden block filling in 
>the treble. It looks like it completely eliminated the treble board 
>area or is it the picture?

Terry has fitted a treble section cut-off to reduce what I also 
regard as excessive sound board area behind the bridge in the treble 
section. If you look at the panel-belly rail contact in the top 
string section, adequate treble area remains. While it might look to 
be less than desirable to those who are used to looking at Steinway 
pianos with the board removed, this piano which Terry has worked on 
has a main-belly-rail section made from two thicknesses glued 
together. There's a lot of belly rail acreage underneath that treble 
section of the board.



The belly rail of our 225 piano is similarly constructed, with two 30 
mm thicknesses of Rock maple glued together to produce a belly rail 
which is effectively a 60 mm thick section of solid maple. The entire 
belly rail assembly in our piano is made from Rock Maple, while the 
cut-off is made from Australian Antarctic Beech and Silky Beech.

An image of 225 piano no.4  with a 60 mm thick main belly rail 
section can be found at;
http://www.overspianos.com.au/ctoff.html

With the Steinway D pianos from Hamburg, the belly rail comprises a 
single 30 mm thick section of Red Beech. I suspect that small total 
sectional size of this piece is why Steinway glue the key bed to the 
belly rail, since it will help what I suspect to be an 
under-engineered belly rail to support the sound board.

An image of the '62 Hamburg D case we recently re-boarded can be viewed at;

http://www.overspianos.com.au/stdctoff2.jpg

A similar treble cut-off to Terry's can be seen fitted to this piano. 
The laminated bass side corner cut-off reduces considerably the 
excessive sound board area of the original design, and the resultant 
900 + mm middle order ribs will better resist premature collapse. The 
original laminated sound board cut-off and 
belly-rail-sound-board-support-beam are made as single bent 
lamination, which is a good idea. As with Terry's modified sound 
board area, we left the original cut-off in place since it won't do 
any harm. Furthermore, it saves us having to insert stiffening 
sections across the cut-off fill panel.

The original D's treble-section belly rail design can be seen better 
in the following image.

http://www.overspianos.com.au/stdctoff1.jpg

In addition to the treble cut-off, we have fitted an extra back beam 
in place of the original 'Steinway bell' to better support both the 
belly rail and the hitch plate of the iron plate in the top string 
section. With reference to the image and text below, note the 
original construction of the belly rail assembly.

The lower piece of the original belly rail is the 30 mm thick main 
belly rail beam of European Red Beech (which is also glued to the 
keybed of a D). Then there is a 30 mm section of pine or some other 
light wood (distinguishable in this image by the visible knott). This 
piece is necessary to allow sufficient room in the action bay for 
housing the damper levers. This piece is made from Rock Maple in our 
piano. Above this we see the laminated Maple/Bubinga mahogany piece 
which supports the sound board across the belly. The most surprising 
aspect of this design is why Steinway used such a light-weight wood 
to join the main Red Beech belly rail span to the Maple/Bubinga 
laminate.

Structurally, the belly rail/sound board connection, in all grand 
pianos, is already at a strength disadvantage when compared to the 
rim, since there is considerable horizontal offset between the main 
belly rail member and the belly rail assembly's connection with the 
sound board. On this list, much justifiable ridicule has been 
levelled at several pianos of Asian origin for using 'select 
hardwood' Luaun in the rim, belly rail and back beams. The fill piece 
of pine in this concert grand would seem not to be any better when it 
comes to material strength. Could it be that since the pine piece 
can't be seen in this concert grand once the sound board is 
installed, that it found its way into the product as a cost cutting 
measure? Surely not!

Happy new year fellow listees,
Ron O.

-- 
OVERS PIANOS - SYDNEY
    Grand Piano Manufacturers
_______________________

Web http://overspianos.com.au
mailto:info@overspianos.com.au
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