[pianotech] Not one of Bechstein's design triumphs.....

Ron Nossaman rnossaman at cox.net
Thu Mar 29 06:42:27 MDT 2012


On 3/29/2012 3:15 AM, David Boyce wrote:

> In general, then, do you design folks think its OK to have strings
> resting against the coils on neighbouring strings?

In general, I'd say no, but like any "universal" rule, in practice or by 
circumstance, it's a matter of degree. What you pictured is a non-issue 
functionally. The strings may touch neighboring coils, but they aren't 
binding in any way that will affect tuning, which makes it largely 
cosmetic. That's why no one jumped on it immediately, because it's a "so 
what?" We have lots of Kimball verticals here, and in lesser numbers 
Baldwins, with strings snaking back and forth around neighboring coils 
at drastic deviations, jamming together so that you literally can't tune 
the low tenor unisons because moving the next string moves the just 
tuned one. I thought I had a photo of one of these travesties, but I 
don't find it, which is a shame. You ought to get to see a good example 
of real design and production stupidity, which was perpetuated year 
after year after year, through tens of thousands of pianos, and never 
corrected. The Baldwins, in this case, actually had room for the strings 
to be placed correctly, so were more likely a working design originally, 
but pin rows were shifted in translating the design to production that 
caused the interference. At least that's how it looked to me. The 
Kimballs, however, could never have worked under any circumstances.

I did find one characteristic example of the fine attention to detail 
and craftsmanship characteristic of Kimball, but unfortunately not the 
right one.

Ron N
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