Ow, that had to hurt!

Hey, is it a sign of piano snobbery when I look at a grand and say, "Two piece fallboard? No great loss."?

quote:

Originally posted by Matthew Collett:

quote:

Originally posted by Zorba:
And a "Produktiv" from the same year (1890):

Isn't 1890 rather late to be straight-strung, which this appears to be?

Best wishes,
Matthew

I'm no expert - but the name sounds Russian which may explain it. Ron?

quote:

Originally posted by OperaTenor:
Ow, that had to hurt!

Hey, is it a sign of piano snobbery when I look at a grand and say, "Two piece fallboard? No great loss."?

But I *like* two piece fallboards!

quote:

Originally posted by OperaTenor:
Pretty funky music desk on this Bechstein:

That Bechstein is SERIOUSLY BOSS!

quote:

Originally posted by Zorba:

quote:

Originally posted by Matthew Collett:

quote:

Originally posted by Zorba:
And a "Produktiv" from the same year (1890):

Isn't 1890 rather late to be straight-strung, which this appears to be?

Best wishes,
Matthew

I'm no expert - but the name sounds Russian which may explain it. Ron?

I was thinking German.

quote:

Originally posted by Zorba:

quote:

Originally posted by OperaTenor:
Ow, that had to hurt!

Hey, is it a sign of piano snobbery when I look at a grand and say, "Two piece fallboard? No great loss."?

But I *like* two piece fallboards!

On grands?

quote:

Originally posted by OperaTenor:

quote:

Originally posted by Zorba:

quote:

Originally posted by Matthew Collett:

quote:

Originally posted by Zorba:
And a "Produktiv" from the same year (1890):

Isn't 1890 rather late to be straight-strung, which this appears to be?

Best wishes,
Matthew

I'm no expert - but the name sounds Russian which may explain it. Ron?

I was thinking German.

Turns out I was close. If you look closely at the one-pice () fallboard, it actually says, "Produktiv-Genossenschaft". They were a maker in Vienna from the 1870's to 1928.

An English Piano forum on the subject.

This was a new one for me...


This "scandinavian" upright - 82 keys. Hmmm, I thought. I opened up to see this:


Notice the pins sticking UP?!? The strings go through a 90 degree bend on their way down to the speaking length. Yes, some friction issues, but it tuned up pretty well!

Ron, that's not an - - aluminum - - plate, is it?

Hmmm BiChords past the break again - I guess they're fairly common in small uprights, now that I've been looking for them, I've seen quite a few!

I could see where this type of pinblock might be at an advantage over the more conventional style. And yea, that sure looks like an aluminum plate to me - how did this beast sound Ron?

I thought Winter was the only one to experiment with Aluminum and that they were considered very poor instruments - but was that the Aluminum plate or just crappy piano?

Pretty sure it was cast iron, just painted silverish...

It sounded surprisingly like a musical instrument... unlike some other tiny spinets.(cough*Kimballs*cough)

It helped that the hammers were in good shape and weren't rocks. The scaling seemed to work for an instrument this size.

Oh, and the bi-chords - Yeah, I see 'em all the time. A lot of the school uprights - Yamaha P22, Baldwin 243s - I think all the old Wurli's as well.

Thanx Ron - I can always count on learning something new about this fascinating world of Pianos!

quote:

Originally posted by rontuner:
It sounded surprisingly like a musical instrument...

Beautiful:

1868 S&S! Cool...