Ron, we'd love to see some pics of your rib extensions, if you have some to share. Can't wait to see pictures of your upright either. Will From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Ron Overs Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 10:10 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] was Tuning stability problem So how's things, mate? Ron N Hi Ron. We're not setting the world on fire, but we've got a couple of concert grand rebuilds under way at the moment, a circa 2000 Yamaha CFIII with a soundboard impedance problem (but otherwise little used), and a circa 1995 Steinway D with a soundboard impedance problem (which is worn out in the action as well). Both clients are budget conscious, so we are jacking both boards and fitting rib extensions (made from Sitka) and all the usual stuff such as agraffes, hardened bars and cold pressed quality hammers with revised action geometry. The Yamaha CFIII will be offered for sale when finished, while the Steinway will go back into service at our biggest Sydney tertiary music institution. I'm looking forward to the D returning to service so that it can be A-B compared to a couple of quite new Hamburg Ds at the institution. We've done a number of these rib extension jobs, and it works very well. The better solution is to replace the boards entirely, because then you can do something about the hideously oversize soundboard area in the middle and treble registers, with bass and treble cut-offs. There is just far too much soundboard area with the model D design to have any chance of seeing more than just a few years before impedance problems set in. Unfortunately, everybody is madly copying Steinway, not only in soundboard area but in compression crowning, so everyone's got the same problem. One of the major orchestra pianos here failed within three years, but being Australian, the management didn't have the bottle to face the obvious warranty issue, even though I offered to write a report on the instrument for a fee. They simply pushed the 'lemon' off stage to a rehearsal room, and purchased another new piano from the same maker. The D we're doing has had its bridges mangled by the 'bridge tapping' fraternity. I'm totally over tech's tapping strings down on bridges. If there is 10 degrees of string offset over the bridge, coupled with a bridge pin inclination of 20 degrees, there will be ample forces at work to keep the strings on the bridge without slamming the strings into the bridge cap with a punch. I haven't determined what we will do with the model D bridge yet. The string grooves in the cap towards the speaking length pins are simply outrageous. I took a couple of pics. Might load them up soon for you all to take a peek. I'm also finally getting around to building the new 131 cm upright which we put a patent application in for 12 months ago. The PTG Journal is interested in doing an article on this piano, so I won't be too detailed with description at this time. However, the piano has a new plate, which I call an arched-truss design, and which allows me to build an upright with full-height treble bridges without cutouts for treble section strut clearance (strut clearance cut-outs prevent upright pianos from producing the equivalent tone to a similarly scaled grand piano - I realise many maker's brochures claim their upright has grand piano tone, but with bridge cutouts, such claims are simply more hollow spin), full soundboard area control via curved cut-offs, and a string scale which has approximately 6% less string tension deviation when compared to a model D concert piano. I am expecting a tonal character which is more akin to what one would expect from a 7' grand piano. My computer modeling gives me confidence that it will perform to these levels. The rib design is similar to our 225 piano, so I'm looking forward to getting it fired up. Planning to get this piano up and running soon. Sound board building is currently under way. All my boards will be laminated from here on. While perfectly good tone can be achieved with either solid or laminated soundboard panels, the tuning stability is soo much better with the laminated panel that I don't ever want to build another solid panelled board. Last year was an absolute shocker of a year for us with the GFC. It made the year even more difficult than normal for us because, even when times are good, Australian institutions are only interested in acquiring the famous German brand. It doesn't matter how good a competitor's piano might be, they simply won't be auditioned, even when some of our leading pianists lobby for others to be considered. With very few exceptions, the Australian music administration fraternity are basically cowards when it comes to having the courage to openly audition stuff from their own country with an open mind. About the only two things Australians believe they can really compete with the world in, is athletics (at a national support level of over A$15 million per gold medal at the last Olympics) and digging the country up and selling it for a one-off sell out. We are unfortunately too immature as a nation to believe that we can achieve anything of equality in the higher arts. We deliberately rate ourselves as second best by force of habit, immaturity or both. Our finest pianists, even when they are clearly high calibre, can get nowhere here unless they have done a stint overseas. There are very fine pianists here who simply don't get a gig because they are automatically deemed inferior - because they haven't done their obligatory overseas stint. How pathetic is that? So how am I Ron? Apart from much of the time feeling like I'm wasting my time, its simply fantastic being down under. Ron O. -- OVERS PIANOS - SYDNEY Grand Piano Manufacturers _______________________ Web http://overspianos.com.au mailto:ron at overspianos.com.au _______________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100923/3814af98/attachment.htm>
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