Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Another intriguing use for old grands

I came across this photo on the "classical music humor" facebook page and thought it was rather neat. My apologies if it has been posted here already:

I love it, although I would be worried about hanging that much weight on a wall. It looks like the person has some heavy duty brackets on the wall and probably has them screwed into studs. Peoples creativity never ceases to amaze me.

It looks like the cast iron frame has been removed.

Ooooh... I want one!!! Very cool!

How completely beautiful! Thanks for posting it.

Very cool picture. If someone inherited a grand that was too far gone to rebuild but couldn't part with it, that would be a great way to keep it in the family.

Thanks for posting.

What kind of piano would be that straight on the right hand side? That's a very sharp corner on the right.

I have a 5'8" Gerhard Heintzman in walnut that I started making into a shelf a year ago.
I am doing this for our showroom. I never thought of leaving the keys in it. Now I think I will.
I currently have a 8 foot Broadwood that is used as a shelf in my shop but is a bit tall for my 7'11" showroom.

That DOES look weird... I wonder if it's made out of a real piano after all, or just made to LOOK like a piano...

It has a pinblock so it's probably real. Bosies have that sharp corner...

It's an 85 note instrument and an open face pin block. Looks like it had a third transition bridge. Probably a pre 1890's European make. Although it could be American.

It is an old type of grand piano whose outer rim was built by single parts. A "non contiguous" rim.

That was the older method of rim building used before Theodore Steinway 1878 invented the contiguous rim, built of laminated maple veneer strips. A method which now is used by the most piano manufacturers in the world.

Bösendorfer still builds some grands by the "old school" manner, with sharp transitions in the outer rim where the single wooden parts meet.

The most interesting question in former days was "how many curves do we allow..in one single piece of wood.." because this question was directly related to the percentage share of waste that a rim builder produced - and so related to piano manufacturing costs..

Bösendorfer makes one curve per piece only. The "Old Steinway school" was to have an S curve, two curves right-left in one bent wooden part which meets it's counterparts at the long bass end of a straight wooden part and at the short treble end. So old Steinway grands have two "corners"; Bösendorfer grands w. "consructed case" have three "corners" in the rim contour.

(..if my description might lack a clear understanding I first would point to my signature, second I'd like to offer a sketch on demand..) :shy:

BTW Offered at Steinway dealers you may find bookcases in the form of a
grand shape.

It is an original Steinway rim, of course a contiguous version (..as the "constructed" rim versions ended in 1886..)

Bösendorfer still does it in all but their shortest grand because they still make their rims from solid wood bent via a technique called kerfing, which involves cutting tiny slits vertically in it.

On this photo of a 225 on its side you can see three corners, one on the bass side and two on the treble



But Steinway and all others have gone to the lower cost, rapid way of making rims from bent plywood, and we no longer see corners.

They are philosophically different in design. The kerf cut is used on the outer rim of the Bosendorfer, a non-structural element. It is quite thin, gives it elegant lines and a more delicate appearance.

However, the extremely thick inner rim of Bosendorfer pianos (almost double that of other makes with laminated rims like Steinway) is solid wood cut to shape. It is neither bent or kerf cut. They could cut it to other shapes, but in the case of Bosendorfer, form still follows function based upon their, now unique and quite expensive, approach to the resonating body.

My understanding tells me that it is easier to make a successful design using a bent, laminated rim using a variety of lower cost materials and approaches (Steinway has a lot of successful imitators, i.e. Yamaha CFIII), but a lower-cost or corner-cutting approach to Bosendorfer's design seems destined to fail. It's just too hard and expensive to copy.

As it relates to the piano in the photo, the shape does make it easier to make the shelves.

Laminated wood is more stable than solid wood. When using solid wood, higher quality material must be used, and it needs to be dried to exacting standards. Of course, this why laminated soundboards were attractive to builders of economy grade pianos. I've seen Boesendorfers under construction at the factory, and the rim making process does not look like it would lend itself well to mass production/cost cutting at all.

From what I remember from the factory, there are lots of these slits, which are then shimmed with wood. Definitely not very efficient. The inner rim is made of blocks of solid wood, cut by a CNC machine.



This is not to say, however, that corners and laminated rims need be mutually exclusive. Case-in-point are the pianos made by David Rubenstein. His rims are made from three sections of laminated wood.

omgosh.. that is the best. i so want one.

thank you Monica

I love the pic and the discussion!