CAUT

  • 1.  Engraved plate for piano

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 10-02-2014 13:11
    I am working on refinishing a Knabe 5' 3" grand piano that belonged to one of our previous University presidents - in fact the building in which the music department is housed is named after him.  I want to present some options as to how we might visually acknowledge him on the finished instrument.  The two choices most obvious to me would be an engraved brass plate, or a custom decal somewhere on the piano.  What are some of the classiest examples you have seen of this kind of thing?  I'm thinking through size, placement, amount of text, etc.

    Thanks for any ideas you can share.

    Here is a link to some information about Dr. William Riddell
    http://esask.uregina.ca/entry/riddell_william_andrew_1905-2000.html

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    Floyd Gadd
    Regina SK
    306-721-9699
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  • 2.  RE: Engraved plate for piano

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 10-02-2014 13:21
    Hi Floyd.

    When I was at Univ of Nebraska, the Lied Center had a nice diamond shaped plaque from some donors children with a "in eternal memory for the love of music" or something similar to that with their names and the nearby town where they lived mounted on the inside of the curved part of the rim next to the lid prop sticks.   It was brass.  I thought that was a nice place for it.  Another one we had in a classroom had a small rectangle plaque on the left cheek-block, but I thought it looked a little tacky there.

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    Paul T. Williams RPT
    Director of Piano Services
    School of Music
    813 Assembly St
    University of South Carolina
    Columbia, SC 29208
    pwilliams@mozart.sc.edu
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Engraved plate for piano

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 10-02-2014 14:10
    Hi, Floyd,

    The classiest donation plaque I had on any piano was on a donated 4-year-old Steinway D at CSU Long Beach. The donation plaque was black, which blended into the piano unless you were close enough to read it. It was a thin flat brass rectangle about 4"x5" that was covered in black lacquer and rubbed satin, then the artist engraved the letters through the black and into the brass, making it look like thin "gold" lettering. It was attached with 4 very small black-headed screws at the 4 corners, and lasted a very long time. This one was on the logo area of the bent side, but it could go anywhere. I wouldn't put it down near the keys, because fingernails could hit it or scratch it. Anything inside the rim also wouldn't really show in performance.

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    Kathy Smith
    Anaheim CA
    714-635-7723
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Engraved plate for piano

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 10-02-2014 14:32
    Hi-

    We had small brass plates custom made for each of the commissioned rebuilt grands that were added to our inventory a couple years ago. I got them from usbrassshop.com and they worked very nicely. We ordered them with adhesive backing so I attached them in the treble section of the plate somewhere in front of the tuning pins wherever it looked the best.  In one previous case I attached a plate directly to the fallboard above the last octave in the treble. That was certainly more conspicuous but I think our players didn't like it as much. Another location to consider would be inside of the rim, in view for the player while lid is up.  There a variety of sizes and fonts available, all at very reasonable cost. 

    good luck,

    Dennis. 

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    Dennis Johnson, R.P.T.
    St. Olaf College
    Music Dept.
    Northfield, MN 55337
    sta2ned@stolaf.edu
    (507) 786-3587
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    Original Message