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There have been some interesting innovations in acoustic pianos in recent years. The Magnetic Balanced Action, Wapin Bridge, and Fazioli's 4th pedal, for example.

Are there any new innovations on the horizon? Do any of them have a chance of making to the mainstream piano market?

Where would you like to see designers/builders focus their efforts to improve piano performance?

JP

I don't know if I would call fazioli's fourth pedal an innovation..

It is my understanding that the fourth pedal works like the unicorda of an upright, where it moves the hammers closer to the strings.

Mashing both pedals down would yield an extra soft effect on the Fazioli.

I like pianos the way they are. If it's built right, and plays/sounds good, I will make music on it.

I think that synthetic soundboards will be the next major innovation. I would guess that you will see prototypes in the next 5-10 years.

Hm, we had a thread just like this very recently.

I think the Fandrich repetition improvement for uprights has the best potential of all. The improvement is indisputable, it's simple, it's cheap, and it requires very little modification.

It's "on the market" now in the Fandrich piano, but it's really something that ought to be adapted by all companies. Unfortunately, it may be only market pressure that will cause other companies to use the design and part with whatever rights fees they must pay. And I dunno if that market pressure will ever happen. Most pianos are essentially exactly the same as 100 years ago. But if logic ruled the day, the Fandrich idea would be in all upright pianos.

Regards,

Rick Clark

I would like to see a longer lasting hammer. Something that retains it's shape and sound for the life of the piano. I just hate purchasing a piano for the sound knowing that it will change. I know you can reshape the hammers and voice them, but why not just make something that doesn't need it?

BC

1) I certainly agree with you about the performance aspects of the Fandrich action. However, we did not find it cheap to assemble and install.

2) The Fandrich piano is no longer in production. The pianos Darrell is importing and selling with this action are not the same thing. Good pianos in their own right, perhaps, but they are not Fandrich pianos.

3) You are quite correct. With the exception that many detail and construction changes have been made to accomodate production and materials availability, the pianos of today are depressingly similar to those of this time a century ago. And the piano industry is suffering for it.

Del

If the Fandrich improvement is "cheap" and "requires very little modification" is it feasible (sensible) to retrofit it into existing uprights? Would this be something worth considering for an intermediate player who would otherwise need to be scratching together money for a grand (and maybe wind up with a worse sounding SG or VSG).

As a p.s. would such a retrofit be something that a typical tech could do with training or would it need a master? Assuming, of course, that the whole idea makes sense.

Why not, indeed. Some years back I conducted a project investigating various alternate hammer materials. Without going into detail I'll just say that the only materials that came even close to giving a true piano-like sound wore out or destroyed themselves in fractions of the hammer life we've come to expect from felt hammers.

Felt, it turns out, is a rather remarkable material if we don't try to make it into something nature never intended it to be.

Del

Why doesn't someone try to improve the sustain in the "kiler octave"? If I've heard correctly, the causes of this problem are understood and may even be fixable?

Also, what is the special bridge innovation referred to in the original post?

Faziolis fourth pedal is not really new on Grands.
I own a grand Piano made by Ed. Westermayer Berlin, Germany, about 1865 !! which has this Pedal to move the Hammers closer to the Strings.
In some details better made than Faziolis.

There are some old innovations which never caught on, which probably should have. One was the Mason & Hamlin screw stringer system. I came to appreciate this when I was restringing one.

The other was the Clutsam curved keyboard, which Schimmel sort of uses in their Pegasus model. I've never seen one up close, but it makes a lot of sense to have the keyboard more equidistant to your shoulders.

To further this thread I might ask you guys what you think about the alloquot string used on Bluthner grands. In addition, Darrell Fandrich has been putting brass on the leading edge (towards the player) of the soundboard. This edge is the only one that isn't anchored, and I believe the idea is to reflect some of the energy back into the soundboard, increasing the sustain and power of the instrument. Thoughts?

Hi Del,

Let me try to be more clear:

>1) I certainly agree with you about the performance aspects of the Fandrich action. However, we did not find it cheap to assemble and install. <

I didn't mean to imply that. What I was trying to say is that the repetition modification idea is simple enough, and the parts are cheap enough, that if major factories wanted to take on the idea they would be able engineer ways to do it on the assembly line without adding much cost to the manufacture. IMO of course. I mean, it seems to me to be a standard action with some holes drilled and those little spring-like things, not a re-think of a traditional action.

A small company doing it all by hand is a different thing. When you're doing it the first time, and on a small scale, it's going to be pretty expensive to do. Likewise, rebuilding/recycling a piano by hand in a typical rebuilding shop ends up costing as much a buying a new piano from a piano company. The industrial processes/techniques are cheaper.

{BTW my only experience is with the new European Fandrich. I don't know if there was something different about the repetition in the Fandrich you are talking about.}

>2) The Fandrich piano is no longer in production. The pianos Darrell is importing and selling with this action are not the same thing. Good pianos in their own right, perhaps, but they are not Fandrich pianos.<

OK, I don't know if I understand this. I serviced one recently, new this past year, I believe it was Czech, and it said Fandrich on the fallboard. I assume if it says Fandrich, it is Fandrich. Have I walked into the middle of some dispute here?

Regards,

Rick Clark

Perhaps.

I rather think we'll see a few high-performance laminated boards first. For at least three reasons:
1) Improved performance potential.
2) Improved tuning stability.
3) We're running out of good quality spruce.

Del

I think Darrell has retrofitted one or two. And, no, I shouldn't think it would be an easy task at all.

It was difficult enough in our own vertical and I designed the piano to accomodate the action. However, since the Fandrich action is based on the Renner stack I suspect it could easily fit in any piano that already has a Renner vertical action.

Del

It is understood and it is fixable. But only at the factory level or with the installation of a new soundboard.

Del

The screw stringer was an idea before its time. It needed better metallurgy than was available at the time.

The curved keyboard is an idea fraught with key leverage and action geometry problems. Better in theory than in practice.

Del

(1) It is effective in that it alters the tone build-up rate through the treble. It's one of those thing that you either like or dislike -- I've not found many that are ambivalent about it.

(2) It's one way of increasing the impedance of the soundboard mounting system. This is a weakness in most grands, few of them have belly braces placed to stabilize the bellyrail. Most are hung up on the so-called "tone-collector" idea which brings the bellybraces together at a point roughly under the bass/tenor crossover. A practice which does the bellyrail very little good at all. When we replace soundboards we automatically fit a bellybrace between the rim and the bellyrail up in the treble area. There are several other ways to stiffen this area up as well, at least one of which can be retrofitted without replacing the soundboard. Anything that can be done to stiffen up the bellyrail will help. It needs it.

Del

It probably said "Fandrich & Sons." At least it should have. The "Fandrich Vertical Piano," or simply, the "Fandrich" piano was/is a 122 cm vertical I designed in the early 1990s. We used Darrell's "Fandrich Vertical Action." One hundred of them were built in Hoquiam, Washington. Confused yet?

We are just beginning to explore methods of possibly bringing a slightly redesigned version of this piano back into production.

We are also working (albeit slowly) on a 200 cm grand.

Del