From c_schonberger@yahoo.com Sun Dec 12 10:11:33 2010
Subject:Re: acoustic vrs. digital pianos OT!

Bruce,
 
Thanks for the insight. I have a question:
I have seen many older pianos (some well over 80 years old) and I noticed that none (one was a spinet like rand, the others were large uprights) had that large cast iron frame with the strong bars to withstand and maintain the string tension), which I see in all moderrn pianos. I noticed that a lot of wooden parts are made to withstand and maintain the string tension together with some brass bars or similar. I also noticed on many older (say 60 years +) pianos that the tuning pins seem to be inside wood and mounted in a way that hardly looks sturdy. I am sorry, but I didn't remember the brands, all of them were unknown to me, except for one beautiful Bluethner Grand with rich woodwork which is roughly 80 years old and doesn't hold the tuning very well, and the overall timbre and sustain simply sound "tired". The notes all sound like "boing!" instead of a rich, sustained almost singing tone and a beautiful snarl in the low notes when played forte -
as is the case on top quality cocncert grands.  I was unable to open the lid from the Bluethner (it was in a home with tons of sheet music and decoration items on top), but it seemmed that again there was no cast iron framework.
 
Quesition: do all modern pianos include a single piece cast iron framework which also holds the tuning pins (sorry I'm not a native speaker, so the term might be wrong)? Does this cast iron frame help to slow doen aging from quality pianos, or is the soundboard still suffering from the string tension as much as on old pianos?
 
Thanks in advance for the reply and I apoligize to be OT!!! Won't happen again :-)
 
Christian
 

--- On Sun, 12/12/10, Bruce Wahler wrote: