merseybeat1963 Posted August 8, 2012 Share Posted August 8, 2012 I clicked in passing & came across this guitar makers site and read he used this bracing pattern as per requested by a client. The results of response blew him away & I think I read in there someplace, he was going to be using this bracing pattern on his standard guitars from now on. Imagine a developement in guitar bracing that renders the traditionally braced guitar nearly obsolete due to much better response. Oh Man. http://www.mcelroyguitars.com/Generation2.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j45nick Posted August 8, 2012 Share Posted August 8, 2012 Interesting, even if it is counterintuitive. Not sure it will render traditional guitars "obsolete", however. I like the way my traditionally-braced guitars sound. "different" isn't always better, and "obsolete" is in the ear of the beholder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merseybeat1963 Posted August 8, 2012 Author Share Posted August 8, 2012 Im thinking kind of a hyper version of way the Steinways made previous pianoforte's nearly obsolete tone wise by the developement of that Cast bronze plate & laminated Rim. It washed away the old way of making the piano. Just Science Fiction Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j45nick Posted August 8, 2012 Share Posted August 8, 2012 Im thinking kind of a hyper version of way the Steinways made previous pianoforte's nearly obsolete tone wise by the developement of that Cast bronze plate & laminated Rim. It washed away the old way of making the piano. Just Science Fiction I believe the plates are now cast iron, which is then bronzed and lacquered. I don't know that much about piano construction, but I thought the primary purpose of the plate was to stabilize tuning by resisting the string tension of up to 20 tonnes that you get in a big grand. As much as anything, the cast metal plate made bigger pianos practical, which can pretty dramatically increase volume and alter tone. Sort of like an extreme case of the long-scale guitar. Imagine going from a 24 3/4" scale to a 45" scale, but tuned to the same pitch. My late sister had a Steinway D (9') in her music room, and that sucker could make the massive chandelier in that room rattle when she took on Rachmaninoff. She bought it from the Birmingham Symphony when they switched from a mahogany piano to an ebony one. It was a pretty intimidating instrument. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merseybeat1963 Posted August 9, 2012 Author Share Posted August 9, 2012 I believe the plates are now cast iron, which is then bronzed and lacquered. I don't know that much about piano construction, but I thought the primary purpose of the plate was to stabilize tuning by resisting the string tension of up to 20 tonnes that you get in a big grand. As much as anything, the cast metal plate made bigger pianos practical, which can pretty dramatically increase volume and alter tone. Sort of like an extreme case of the long-scale guitar. Imagine going from a 24 3/4" scale to a 45" scale, but tuned to the same pitch. My late sister had a Steinway D (9') in her music room, and that sucker could make the massive chandelier in that room rattle when she took on Rachmaninoff. She bought it from the Birmingham Symphony when they switched from a mahogany piano to an ebony one. It was a pretty intimidating instrument. Dispite having gone to that Store/Museum so many times,tour of factory, reading they're literature,one movie and a biography on them..time has blurred my memory. I thought it was a Bronze casting in there but it is "bronzed". Your sister sounds like a great loss. It must have been something having a sister playing like that. The sister that helped you with the j45,yes? The D always sounded the best to me in those grand rooms at Steinway Hall. It became a goal to have that sound & a room like that someday. I never touched the piano and I put wife up to taking lessons but she got too distracted learning flute & me dragging her into house repairs to get very good. The B we bought in the mid 80's was a 1978 & bought new by Marvin Hamlish..who sold it back to Steinway Hall when he left his apartment in NY. Which is how we got it. I hate broadway music..but he was the father of our piano..and makes me sad to hear he died yesterday at only 68. Our sales guy said he tried every B piano in the Hall, basement & factory giving them a hard time back and forth till he selected this one. To this day when a person comes to tune or touch it up they exclaim Wow its a good one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j45nick Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Your sister sounds like a great loss. It must have been something having a sister playing like that. The sister that helped you with the j45,yes? The D always sounded the best to me in those grand rooms at Steinway Hall. It became a goal to have that sound & a room like that someday. I never touched the piano and I put wife up to taking lessons but she got too distracted learning flute & me dragging her into house repairs to get very good. Yes, she was a great loss when she died at age 55. It was and is still the greatest loss of my entire life, more than 20 years later. She was the one who loaned me the money to buy my J-45. She even took up classical guitar later in life, in part because I played. Both the piano and the music room were impressive. It was actually the original living room of this bloody great antebellum mansion they lived in, and it could seat 100 people for a recital. She was a brilliant pianist, and the sweetest human being I have ever known. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedzep Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Sadly, Nick, the good die young. We'll be around for a long time. Sigh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merseybeat1963 Posted August 10, 2012 Author Share Posted August 10, 2012 Yes, she was a great loss when she died at age 55. It was and is still the greatest loss of my entire life, more than 20 years later. She was the one who loaned me the money to buy my J-45. She even took up classical guitar later in life, in part because I played. Both the piano and the music room were impressive. It was actually the original living room of this bloody great antebellum mansion they lived in, and it could seat 100 people for a recital. She was a brilliant pianist, and the sweetest human being I have ever known. God Bless her. My heart aches to read this. As we get older and start losing those that were part of our lives,a part of us dies with them ..and in that hollow place is where the memory of them seems to live. Those losses are forever fresh when they come to mind. When I look at old people that are spaced out or like those i see in the nursing home my mother is in..I think that this is where they are spending those last days of they're lives. To the young they look old and maybe wretched,but inside they are as they were, reliving they're lives as they were with those that are gone, in they're glory & in delight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texastrummer Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 God Bless her. My heart aches to read this. As we get older and start losing those that were part of our lives,a part of us dies with them ..and in that hollow place is where the memory of them seems to live. Those losses are forever fresh when they come to mind. When I look at old people that are spaced out or like those i see in the nursing home my mother is in..I think that this is where they are spending those last days of they're lives. To the young they look old and maybe wretched,but inside they are as they were, reliving they're lives as they were with those that are gone, in they're glory & in delight. Well said MB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merseybeat1963 Posted September 7, 2012 Author Share Posted September 7, 2012 Worth Reading http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=458817197475563&set=a.294461793911105.82123.130269480330338&type=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j45nick Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Worth Reading http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=458817197475563&set=a.294461793911105.82123.130269480330338&type=1 Life is short, and nothing is guaranteed. Never pass up an opportunity to be kind to someone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrorod Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 I have,nt read it yet....But dammit, you guys are choking me up..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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