Australian "Stewart Piano"
By Michael Waters
I was watching a show on our own ABC television the other night, and I listened with great interest about the new innovations in piano construction by Australian inventor & piano builder Wayne Stewart.
Apparently he has changed the design of the bridge pins so that the strings travel over it in a straight line. From what I could see it he hasn't just changed the angle of the pins in the bridge, but has manufactured a completely new bridge hitch. I'm not real sure of the exact technicalities as I missed some of it (kids yelling in my ear!).
But there is much appreciation of it by composers and pianists alike. From what they were saying it has much more clarity of tone and it sustains for much longer than the conventional system. They compared the same piece of music played on a Steinway, then on the Stewart Piano, and even on TV you could tell the difference between the two pianos.
I would like to know if anybody has actually heard one of these pianos and what is their opinion of them? The way it was spoken about is that it is a fairly new concept in piano construction. I hadn't heard of it before; has anyone heard of it before? I'm interested in hearing any information regarding this piano and it's construction.
Can any of the other Aussies help me on this one?
Regards, Michael -- "SEASONS GREETINGS TO ALL"
P.S.: S. K. Goodman said, "I formerly soaked tracker bars in a bucket of gasoline, before the price of gas went up to over $1.00 a gallon!" It's been about 25 years since it was that price here in Down Under!
[ Editors comment:
[
[ If the new Stewart piano actually has commercial potential I'm sure
[ that our guys in Piano Tuners Guild (PTG) will hear of it soon.
[
[ A fundamental trade-off in piano design is the proportion of energy
[ in the string which is coupled to the sounding board. The piano tech
[ can adjust this parameter by altering the "bearing", meaning how much
[ the string "bears upon" the soundboard.
[
[ More bearing means a louder piano with relatively greater energy in the
[ partials, less sustaining time, and greater dissonance. Conversely, a
[ piano with minimal bearing sustains the sound longer and perhaps has
[ a more pure tone, but it also has no "carrying power".
[
[ I'm skeptical that the Stewart piano is really a new basic concept --
[ it's probably just "quiet", and "low bearing".
[
[ Robbie Rhodes
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(Message sent Sat 21 Dec 1996, 11:51:31 GMT, from time zone GMT+1100.) |
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