•Bernt Damm, in referring to piano strings, made this comment: > From practical piano-building, I know that a music wire sounds at its > most pleasant to the human ear just before its breaking point. Good > pianos are therefore constructed in such a way that the wire is under > such tension that it ...

•Hi everybody: Now I'm trying to put in working condition a Carlton Wurlitzer player piano, so I'm asking if somebody can explain to me how works the mechanism of the top action which allows that the roll doesn't move to the left and the right, so the perforations can go exactly to the hole of the t...

•Hi! I am curious as to how the picking mechanism on a banjo machine functions. Does anybody out there have a diagram of the picking mechanism that they would share with me? Thanks, Domingo Mancuello bullwinkle2@mac.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply] [ An entertaining guitar plucking and p...

•[ Most problems encountered in restoring pianos lie outside the realm [ of MMDigest, which usually deals with just the player problems. But [ here's a situation where the stringing scale is unique to a player [ piano. -- Robbie Bass String Diameters in Mason & Hamlin Ampico Pianos Many string scale...

•Hi MMDers, I would like to add something to Bill Koenigsberg's posting. As a string maker I keep a chart of all the bass strings I make and the variations in bass string just between piano and piano is huge. Mind you, my experiences have mainly been with upright players. Gulbransens are one of the ...

•Hi MMD friends, I have a restored Mason and Hamlin Ampico 'A' size piano, RA39028. This piano has been fully restored, including restringing. I hired a piano restorer to do the piano restringing, and assumed that all that he did was according to the right specifications. However, in recent discussi...

•Hi MMD friends, I too have a restored Mason and Hamlin Ampico 'A' size piano, RA38846. This piano has been fully restored, including restringing. I hired a piano restorer to do the piano restringing, and assumed that all that he did was according to the right specifications. This is the same issue ...

•[ Pat Markey wrote in 140217 MMDigest: > Because my old wound bass strings were discarded before I got the > piano back from the restorer, I am not sure that the new strings > really match the old ones. (My bass tonal quality is good but I do > not know if the replacement strings enable it to be at...

•I agree with Jon Page regarding the bass strings on a Mason & Hamlin Ampico. I've examined and modified hundreds of scales and manufactured thousands of bass strings. I've yet to come across a scale that I didn't think could be improved given the knowledge that now exists concerning piano string sc...

•Stephen Powell writes: "I agree with Jon Page regarding the bass strings." I second that with an example of changing the stringing scales. Del Fandrich, now in the Seattle area, re-designed the stringing scale on my 1922 5'6" J&C Fischer. We changed eight bass notes in the third octave from two wou...

•Hi All, Yes, today the higher grade or most competent PTG (Piano technicians Guild) members can and will rescale a piano and they can improve on old scales, but not all of them do. Additionally, there are rebuilders out there that do not go the last mile. I purchased a 5'4" #32 scale Charles Stieff...

•While how any piano is scaled certainly can affect it's sound, who made the new bass wires is also important. Other issues include bridge placement, soundboard thickness, ring growth of the lumber used in the board, where the ribs are placed, how many and how stiff, depending on where they are in t...

•I would suspect that Allen's "tubby bass" may be more a case of a de-crowned soundboard providing a lack of proper downbearing. Since the bass bridge is so near the edge of the soundboard, it doesn't take much flattening of the board to lose proper downbearing. If the bass strings hadn't been repla...

•Before I comment, I would like to say that the topic is not limited to Ampico pianos. It seems as if Mason & Hamlin used its size "A" piano (5'8") for experimentation during the 1920's and 1930's. I have no idea how many variations exist, but I have seen over ten. Unfortunately, I did not make deta...

•Perhaps we think that the Mona Lisa would be better if her teeth were whiter? Maybe someone should have told Picasso that women are not triangular? Who needs that primary valve -- simply add a bleed to your secondary valves that's large enough and you've improved your Duo-Art. How about extending y...

•Hi again, I should add that not all piano rebuilders are members of PTG. Also, an RPT that does not rescale a piano does not mean he or she is not a good RPT. Rebuilders follow input from the owner of the piano and work to a level of their own abilities. The cost of restoring a 5'4" grand piano not...

•David Dewey's comment (MMD 140222) about loss of downbearing affecting the tone in the bass end of the Mason & Hamlin made me reflect on the role of the "tension resonator" in Mason & Hamlin pianos. This device is meant to resist changes in the piano by pulling the sides in using rods that are simi...

•My 5'8" AR Mason and Hamlin Ampico has a serial number of 33089. Molded into the plate is "AX6". The existing Mason and Hamlin records show this as having been shipped to the Cable Music House in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, in October of 1924. This is a very early Mason Ampico; it may be the o...

•[ Steve Bentley wrote in 010408 MMDigest: ] > What I find now is the pins are harder to break loose and a cracking > noise is heard each time ... it won't "fine tune." I'm sure others will correct me, but the problem may not be with the pins, but with the strings sticking on the bridge. As you tigh...

•Although some may strongly disagree, I know from firsthand experience that it is not necessary to remove the keybed of an upright player piano just to lay in new strings. In fact, I will go one step further and say that removing the bed is not even desirable. Here's why... The amount of time it tak...