From Ron Overs <sec@overspianos.com.au>
Hello Jon and all,
At 8:10 PM -0400 10/3/09, Jon Page wrote:
>Sent privately:
>>YC made an "improvement" to their grands at one point that
>>consisted of grinding the capo flat and installing a cast
>>termination. As you have discovered it presents many problems as
>>the cast material was WAY too soft and grooved immediately. I'm
>>not sure there is a good solution. But at least you know you are
>>not alone. YC reverted to the original system after the complaints
>>became overwhelming. I saw lots of these years ago as I did a lot
>>of contract work for PianoDisc who bought YCs by the carload at the
>>time.
>
>I don't recall this topic on the list before but it is good general
>knowledge to have.
>Does anyone know the years involved with this soft v-bar?
I've seen these bars also Jon. A colleague supplied me with a sample
- simply rubbish material.
>Since I can't even get one note to be stable and the rest of the
>treble is shaky,
>I'll have to remedy the situation in order to sell it. Maybe dealers
>can push out
>this crap but I'm not willing to.
>
>Any reason why I couldn't use an easy material such as brass?
I believe its too soft.
>Suggestions welcome.
>I'll also ease the sharp profile on the counter bearing duplex or
>replace it altogether with
>a half round or half oval.
You can also build another small hardened V-bar for each of the two
treble string sections, which can be located right at the edge of the
plate web closest to the capo. This will help to clean up the tone
and minimise the patented string-noise technology.
>So much for profit. Integrity is more important. It's not like I'll
>be losing money it's just
>that it'll take more hours to attain the same amount, less
>profitable but more rewarding.
I understand how you feel. I also have done this, but it sometimes
turns into a learning experience which can be useful for the future.
You may be interested in building one of these hardened tool-steel
capo bars (see below) that I built for a two-year-old grand which had
bars that wouldn't respond to heat treatment. This job was done not
long after I returned from the 2006 Rochester National Convention.
The cap screws are screwed into threads which are tapped into the
iron plate after the original capo V-bar was ground off. The end
closest to the strut between the agraffes and capo sections can be
accommodated by die grinding the draw from the iron plate adjacent to
the first note on the capo section. This provides just enough room to
fit the cap screw while still allowing the string lines to run
through from the centre tuning pin to the speaking length in a
straight line. This is especially important with hardened bars,
because the wire will continue to skid along the bar during tuning if
the strings segments are not aligned properly. If you'd like to build
one of these bars Jon, I'd be happy to call you on Skype and talk you
through the production process. You'll also need to build a heat-sink
before hardening the bar, but its quite simple to do. One further
comment about the only-three cap screws holding the bar in place.
During the hardening process the bar will shrink slightly in length
along the apex of the V-bar. This will cause the bar to take on a
slight upward curvature along its length. This proves to be most
useful, because the cap screws will pull the bar straight when it is
fitted to the plate, which will result in firm contact all along the
V-bar length between the bar and the plate. It is critically
important for tone that no part of the capo insert should be
unsupported.
If you can't see the image above, a copy can be found at;
http://users.tpg.com.au/ronovers/ptr.custom.capo.jpg
The square-section bar in the image is the off-cut of the ground
stock from which the new bar was made.
While it doesn't help to pay the bills, solving surprises along the
way can be a wonderful educational experience. In the particular
V-bar case mentioned above, I was a bit lucky because the local
dealer asked me to do the work to demonstrate the OEM capo problem to
the manufacturer, so the dealer footed the bill for the work. The
tonal result was most satisfactory, particularly since the plate of
this piano had a very short gap between the pin-block web and capo,
so I was able to make the counterbearing lengths relatively quite
short. Many manufacturers just don't seem to understand this stuff.
Once again, for the 'doubting Thomas's' out there, I'll include two
quality mp3 sound files of a piano with hardened capo and front
duplex bars, the Overs 225 piano. Only two people had a listen last
Friday when I published these links on Pianotech. But be sure to
freshly restart your computer before opening the link to the mp3.
When the RAM memory is busy with a lot of programmes open, the sound
quality can be full of glitches and noise. With a freshly restarted
computer and free RAM memory, using headphones you'll hear a clean
download.
(please click on the mp3 links below to hear recordings of a piano
with hardened capo and front duplex bars - if the link doesn't
automatically load, copy the link into your favourite web browser)
http://users.tpg.com.au/onyxer/Corelli.mp3
Scott Davie's recording of Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme of
Corelli, Op. 42
Piano: Overs 225 no. 3 - duration 18'38
Copies of the original CD from which this was taken are still available
Sydney jazz pianist and composer Mike Nock recorded a CD with his
trio on an Overs 225 piano. The following mp3 of Mike's composition,
Acceptance, can be heard at;
http://users.tpg.com.au/dotmewes/Acceptance.mp3
Piano: Overs 225 no. 3 - duration 7'04
The performers are; Mike Nock - piano, Brett Hirst - acoustic bass,
Toby Hall - drums.
The original CD is sold out.
Regards,
Ron O.
--
OVERS PIANOS - SYDNEY
Grand Piano Manufacturers
_______________________
Web http://overspianos.com.au
mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au
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