Piano experimentation should not stop.

REVIEW of the SEPTEMBER
CHAPTER MEETING
by Jeff Cappelli, RPT

   Dr Richard Bosworth (long ago a classmate at IU) and
Robert DiSanto of Stone Tone Music, came to Chicago
to show off Mr DiSanto’s solid granite treble bridge and
granite-capped bass bridge, which he installed on a Story
and Clark production piano.  Thomas Zoells acted as host
at his beautiful Pianoforte Salon in the Fine Arts Building,
where Dr Bosworth drew interesting tonal comparisons
between a new Shigeru Kawai 7’6” grand and a production
model Story and Clark small grand, modified with the new
bridge material.

   It was quite clear that for the Story and Clark, the before
and after samplings (the former recorded) were of vastly
different sound qualities—the latter being more in focus,
with greater sustain.  The granite bridge did produce a
lovely, clear sound at lower dynamic levels.  Mr DiSanto
commented that the project will require further R&D.

   Many questions arose during the evening about how the
mass of the bridges and the sensitive nature of the piano
soundboard might coexist over long periods of time.  This
made for energized conversation, with interesting
observations and comments from several of the
technicians present.

  Future innovation is essential in all industries and we are
delighted to have had the opportunity to visit with these
two—now pioneers in piano technology.  As this is the
beginning of their journey, there will undoubtedly be more
discovery and developments in the future.  Perhaps one
day we will see more modifications intended to transfer
energy as efficiently as possible to the soundboard—and to
our curious, waiting ears.
   Jeff

Autumn Leaves

- and probably same piano. Comment says it's 'improv.'.

Apparently they could be using the Earthworks Piano Mic   

Ah - here we go - quote from this Pianoworld post:  "The next piano will be a 1965 Baldwin SD 9' concert grand recorded professionally."
Re: Stone Tone (Granite) piano bridge?

Greg.

Just a idea...  I don't even have a picture of the granite bidge you are using.

Greg.

Stonetone® wrote:

Here is a link:  http://youtu.be/rQx_nieKBYY

  www.cymascope.com readings called cymaglifs  and show all 10 partials of middle c played on 6 pianos 4 high end in comparison to the 1905 baldwin we did and the 5'1" baby grand.
They refer to this as "music made visible"

Interesting videos, including the ones on still another page linked to the 2nd link above at: http://www.cymascope.com/cyma_research/musicology.html

Reading the slide at the end of the first video helped me to understand what I was watching a bit better:

"Lower harmonics are in the area of the outer boundary while higher harmonics are represented in the center region of each pattern."

But I'm still not sure what I'm seeing:

Sometimes I see, briefly, symmetrical patterns, as though I was looking through a kaleidoscopic.  Often I see a pattern of 8 repeated "things" that I want to call nodes, but if they are nodes or partials, I'm not sure why they would be repeated. Is the shape repeated for each multiple of the fundamental? Thus the pattern of 8 is the octave? Often these shapes appear near the center, so they are instead the 8th partial?

Some of the notes at http://www.cymascope.com/cyma_research/musicology.html (the videos that play when pressing the keyboard) seem more chaotic than others. The pattern of 8 seems to vanish. But surely the octave should be there, unless the inharmonicity is much higher than what is expected?

I wonder about the tolerance of this device--how far off the octave or other integer does the freq have to be before the shape is irregular?

One worry is over how the recordings were made and how the recording was played back for the device: was the mic over the string, over bridge, or over the soundboard? Over what part of the string, bridge, soundboard?

Interesting, regardless. And your bridge does seem to change the sound of the pianos. Do you do guitar bridges as well, or did I misunderstand part of one of your posts? (Not a casual question. I play guitar.)

Hello jake,

The partials are explained in the beginning and at the end the best to our knowledge and any other questions you may have email John stuart reid owner of the cymascope and he will be happy to explain what your seeing and any other details of the cymascope..

As far as the recordings go the same mic was used all in the same position. any questions on that since Dan is the one who obtained those recordings of the pianos used in the video because he tuned them for his cliental so you can contact my piano technician I work with Daniel Koehler owner of Naples piano company naples florida. His number is 239.404.8007.

Yes I have done 23 prototype guitars and they are over the top to say the least, if you'd like to discuss rather than type a zillion words on this topic any one interested I can be reached @ 239.216.6731 for any questions or links you may be interested in.

Thank you for your interest on this topic.

Here is a link:  http://youtu.be/rQx_nieKBYY

  www.cymascope.com readings called cymaglifs  and show all 10 partials of middle c played on 6 pianos 4 high end in comparison to the 1905 baldwin we did and the 5'1" baby grand.
They refer to this as "music made visible"

Interesting videos, including the ones on still another page linked to the 2nd link above at: http://www.cymascope.com/cyma_research/musicology.html

Reading the slide at the end of the first video helped me to understand what I was watching a bit better:

"Lower harmonics are in the area of the outer boundary while higher harmonics are represented in the center region of each pattern."

But I'm still not sure what I'm seeing:

Sometimes I see, briefly, symmetrical patterns, as though I was looking through a kaleidoscopic.  Often I see a pattern of 8 repeated "things" that I want to call nodes, but if they are nodes or partials, I'm not sure why they would be repeated. Is the shape repeated for each multiple of the fundamental? Thus the pattern of 8 is the octave? Often these shapes appear near the center, so they are instead the 8th partial?

Some of the notes at http://www.cymascope.com/cyma_research/musicology.html (the videos that play when pressing the keyboard) seem more chaotic than others. The pattern of 8 seems to vanish. But surely the octave should be there, unless the inharmonicity is much higher than what is expected?

I wonder about the tolerance of this device--how far off the octave or other integer does the freq have to be before the shape is irregular?

One worry is over how the recordings were made and how the recording was played back for the device: was the mic over the string, over bridge, or over the soundboard? Over what part of the string, bridge, soundboard?

Interesting, regardless. And your bridge does seem to change the sound of the pianos. Do you do guitar bridges as well, or did I misunderstand part of one of your posts? (Not a casual question. I play guitar.)

The pop term "rock-on" will go nearly literally for this piano.

I was thinking ...   piano evolution use to be somewhate froze, no new attempts that really got space and popularity, like if all great musicians and pianists were happy with great pianos brands like Steinways, and concluded that no new alterations or modifications were need.

Do you think this time will be different, and classic pianists will be more open to new ideas?

Hello Beto-Music,

I certainly do. www.richardbosworth.org is our media relations and spokesperson for the piano entity of Stonetone®
The term rock on is similar to my slogan related to the guitars says I've done is " Nobody Rocks You Harder "

I was thinking ...   piano evolution use to be somewhate froze, no new attempts that really got space and popularity, like if all great musicians and pianists were happy with great pianos brands like Steinways, and concluded that no new alterations or modifications were need.

Do you think this time will be different, and classic pianists will be more open to new ideas?

  www.cymascope.com readings called cymaglifs  and show all 10 partials of middle c played on 6 pianos 4 high end in comparison to the 1905 baldwin we did and the 5'1" baby grand.
They refer to this as "music made visible"

They are maybe trying to make real piano's sound like Pianoteq

Not at all.

To really judge the performance of this bridge, I think we would need videos of the same pianos before and after they had one.

Yes I defiantly agree but 1 crude indonesian piano was enough.. LOL. We did record the piano as stock before we did the modification and I will post the samples as soon as I can.

Hello Robert,

Your idea to introduce a granite bridge is a fascinating one.

I have a few questions, not criticisms, about the engineering qualities of a granite-wooden interface:

How does the Young's Modulus of granite of the bridge compare to that of spruce in a soundboard?  For those not familiar with this term, Young's modulus is called the modulus of elasticity, also called stress:strain ratio.  There is no doubt in my mind that granite would transfer the kinetic energy to the soundboard very efficiently; would a mismatch in granite's greater density hinder the free vibration of the soundboard?  I do not know the answer to these questions; they are only thoughts I have.

Regarding differences of expansion and contraction in response to ambient humidity between spruce and granite, have you addressed how to keep the soundboard from cracking in conditions of extremely dry wintertime humidity, if the granite bridge is too intimately connected to it?   I do understand that a bridge is positioned generally parallel to the soundboard's wood grain, but a wooden bridge will expand and contract in a similar manner as the soundboard would respond to seasonal changes in ambient humidity.

Food for thought.

Cheers,

Joe

The rigidity of the stone acts as a support system while keeping the crown intact in spite of weather changes that typically drive tuner techs crazy by the elasticity of wood. Stone is not affected, for instance I am in Naples Florida "humididty central"and when we transported the 5'1 baby grand to chicago that travel took 3 1/2 weeks and didn't go out of tune.

The granite helps eliminate several issues that wood bridges have where the degradation of the crown cannot happen as the granite has no elasticity and is in direct contact to the sound board.