Comments for Square Piano Tech

Comment on Need input from the opinion experts by admin

admin — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 21:47:59 +0000

Karl,
The Handbook of Historical Stringing Practice by Rose and Law give the scale for a 1784 Buntebart and Sievers of 1784 which will work nicely for this one. I assume you are familiar with note terminology; I’ll quote from C-f3, and give you the best recommendation for the overspun I know if yours goes below this as I suspect:
C to C# – 0.59/0.39
D to F# – 0.59/0.30
G to G# – 0.50/ 0.25
A to A# – 0.70
B to f – 0.64
f# to g# – 0.59
a to a# – 0.54
b – 0.51
c1 to f#1 – 0.46
g1 to f2 – 0.41
f#2 to a#2- 0.38
b3 to f3 – 0.35

A rather complicated scaling, but I suspect it was done to settle some problems.

For lower notes, depending on what this one of yours has:
FF to AA# – 0.70/0.42
AA# to B – 0.63/0.42

Comment on Need input from the opinion experts by Karl

Karl — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 05:12:32 +0000

I am beginning to look at the restoration of a Buntlebart square of 1781 which came with most of the wire missing. Does anyone have an accurate historical scaling for this instrument?

Comment on SP in Art by Frank Renfrow

Frank Renfrow — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 03:25:36 +0000

Very nice page (and website) Tom, a great new resource.I tried out a number of the paintings and I found that Goodwine’s “The Duet” makes a great desktop image.

Best Regards,
Frank

Comment on Contact / Submissions by admin

admin — Wed, 11 May 2011 02:00:58 +0000

We can let the posting stand and see if anyone responds.

Comment on Contact / Submissions by Tamás Turi

Tamás Turi — Tue, 10 May 2011 15:00:09 +0000

Dear Sir,

Lyra piano for sale in Hungary: “B. Schleip in Berlin”.
Are you interested, maybe?

Yours sincerely,
Tamás Turi (tturit@t-email.hu)

Comment on Restorative Conservation by andrew Nolan

andrew Nolan — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:10:37 +0000

The situation is worsened when the prospective player of the instrument is a professional pianist, who wants the instrument ‘conceit ready’. Great effort will be made to attain evenness in the action and to reduce action noise by shimming mortises or inserting veneer into cut made alongside mortises. However the amateur musician is more forgiving and easier on the instrument.

Comment on Piano Importation by andrew Nolan

andrew Nolan — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 23:48:35 +0000

I am interested in early Viennese and German instruments, which have bone key covers. This makes importation much easier.

Comment on Tuning by David Hackett

David Hackett — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:41:49 +0000

I do indeed have a lovely little Broadwood square from 1787, which was happily in tune at A44o when I bought it, and is still at that pitch with its new strings. It seems to ‘want’ to be at that level. It is also remarkably stable in holding its tune. There are two points, however:
– My strings are on the light side. A check on the formula shows that you don’t have to make the string much thinner to ‘recover’ the 12% extra tension for the semitone.
– The early Broadwoods were in fact stronger than the later ones. An 1825 Broadwood has much heavier strings, and more of them, but a bottom which is if anything thinner than the early pianos.

Comment on Tuning by admin

admin — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 21:53:54 +0000

Of course we could say in an authoritative voice “tune your square piano to A=430, in equal temperament” case closed, no discussion. But that would cheat history and the obvious fact that no such definitive tuning existed at the time. We must move to the 20th century in order to close our minds to the subject of pitch and temperament, and state categorically what must be done! The 18th century enjoyed more freedom.

Comment on Tuning by Bette Boothroyd

Bette Boothroyd — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 21:38:07 +0000

my God, i believed you were going to chip in with some decisive insight at the finish there, not go away with ‘we go away and let you decide’

Editors note: I think this email was an early fisihing expedition to get people to click on a site, but have left it in and edited it to make cogent statement.