Re: Australian "Stewart Piano"
By Peter Braun
Robbie wrote, "I'm skeptical that the Stewart piano is really a new basic concept -- it's probably just 'quiet', and 'low bearing'".
The Stewart design is different. As Michael Waters wrote, he has changed the design of the bridge pins so that the strings travel over it in a straight line.
That is, the bridge pins are not offset relative to each other in the horizontal plane. The string passes into the new "bridge pin" in a straight line. This allows the string to vibrate in the vertical plane for longer. The normal bridge pin causes the string vibration to shift, over time, from the vertical plane (the plane in which it is struck by the hammer) to the horizontal plane, creating a circular motion. The relatively disorganised vibration is what causes the sound decay. With the vibration in a plane vertical to the sound board the energy is maintained for longer.
I, too, saw the video clip mentioned by Michael. There was a greatly sustained sound which is quite dramatically different, even with limited audio bandwidth. I can't wait to hear it in real life.
Merry Christmas, Peter Braun
[ I can't wait to hear it, either -- up close! I don't trust TV
[ audio any more than I trust the facts in TV video clips!
[ -- Robbie
|
(Message sent Mon 23 Dec 1996, 03:10:31 GMT, from time zone GMT+1100.) |
|
|
Mechanical
Music Digest™ Archives
