Golden Rope Around Upright Harp?

navindra

My family is in agreement that my upright needs to be tuned. So be it. I opened it up and noticed something I hadn't before.

What is this rope and does it have a function?

On another note, isn't remarkable to what extent piano makers go to make the insides of the pianos look beautiful?

raagamuffin

A piano tech told me when he visited to fix my piano that it is to hide the joint between the plate and the frame which may have some imperfections.

navindra

raagamuffin Pretty clever! I guess it works, because I wouldn't have guessed. 😂

Josephine

navindra

I want to replace it anyway, so I pulled it a bit to the side. It was just glued into the corner, so I also think it's just to hide the gap between the wood and the plate.

Gombessa

I've noticed this on some grands too:

I always thought it was just a stylistic touch, but the "hide area of obvious joints" makes sense too.

I tucked a woven USB cable around part of the plate that kinda looks like your (but not anywhere near as nice) 🙂

navindra

Gombessa Very interesting!

I was actually wondering about that too. On an upright, the internals are hidden away most of the time, but on a grand, they are often fully exposed... so why not do the rope trick on grands? I don't see the rope on my Estonia either.

If an upright piano costs $10000, how much would it cost if they didn't bother with all these cosmetic touches? $5000?

They'd do the bare minimum to protect the metal and wood, but not waste any money on metallic gold paint, veneers, toxic polyester paint, or any of that stuff. There's a ton of investment on esthetics.

Kawai just launched a new premium upright line and some folks seem to make a big deal of the fact that it has veneers on the interior that are reminiscent of an SK.

I'm thinking a piano could probably sell for a fraction of the current price if you didn't have to pay for all the work that goes in on the esthetics alone.

Btw, you certainly have an eye for detail! I've had my upright for years and only just paid attention to this now. 😃

Gombessa

navindra I was actually wondering about that too. On an upright, the internals are hidden away most of the time, but on a grand, they are often fully exposed... so why not do the rope trick on grands? I don't see the rope on my Estonia either.

My guess is a rope is non-optimal from a sound perspective - it's a loose baffle whose only sonic effect would be to absorb vibrations from the soundboard that would otherwise be transmitted as tone? I'm sure the effect is beyond minimal, but in the world of pianos, that'd be enough for some manufacturers to say "no way," right?

If an upright piano costs $10000, how much would it cost if they didn't bother with all these cosmetic touches? $5000?

I've seen some insane details inside old uprights, including gold, paint, veneers. My guess is it's part theater, part "we cut no corners at all, even the parts you can't see are finished."

Same with grands, Fazioli and others have some incredibly nicely finshed/varnished undersides and beams, that you'd never see without crawling under your piano (mine is the standard matte black for everything other than the soundboard).

Pianos aren't solely instruments, they're furniture and luxury items and symbols of wealth and prosperity, and I guess it makes sense to have the same kind of "jewel movement" thinking like in luxury watches, right?

raagamuffin
That's a gorgeous veneer, birds eye? I really love pianos with a light/airy visual interior. Is it Hailun 151 by chance?

raagamuffin

My grand has it also (that is why I asked the tech) . On having seen it again , in my case it looks like the joint is between the soundboard and the frame rather than the plate ..

Josephine

Gombessa I've seen some insane details inside old uprights, including gold, paint, veneers. My guess is it's part theater, part "we cut no corners at all, even the parts you can't see are finished."

I think some brands might have anniversary edition uprights, like there are also anniversary edition grands, but I'm not sure. I never read anything about it, but my upright from 1903 has almost serial number 25000, and I read once that they had a big party at the factory when piano no 25000 was built. There was also a picture of all employees, so the people who made my piano probably were in that picture too!

So the reason I got that idea is because of the serial number, and the fact that other uprights I saw from this brand that are built around the same year have a normal action. They don't have an action that looks like the action of my upright. I saw only one upright with a similar action in a museum.

raagamuffin

@Gombessa you know your pianos! .. it's a Cunningham , made by Hailun. Impressive for it's price , IMO.

rogerch

Interesting! My piano doesn't have rope, but it does have an extra piece of wood that touches the soundboard and the case along the bass edge of the piano. It doesn't seem like it's there for looks!

Gombessa

rogerch Interesting! As similar as many pianos look, there are certainly a lot of differences in the details, aren't there?

raagamuffin

rogerch
Interesting that it doesn't go all the way down the edge. I wonder if its got a purpose beyond hiding a joint..

Monviso

Josephine
What beautiful details! Do you have a picture of the whole of your piano?
I love the idea of having a photo of the people who made your instrument all that time ago. It's very moving.

Gombessa

Josephine I don't recall ever seeing a picture of your action, but that is EXACTLY what was in my mind when I was reading this thread. That is a jewel! Can you see it if you open the lid of the piano? I'd want to show it off all the time.

Josephine

Monviso

I'll look for some photos!

I just found the photo of the employees with a story about that day:

On June 15, 1903, the completion of the 25,000th instrument was celebrated: “A real folk festival took place in the garden of the Schützenhaus, while in the hall there were banquet tables for about 400 guests, officials and factory workers, as well as numerous friends and patrons.[...] In a later speech, Mr. Ferdinand Thürmer looked at the beginnings and development of the company and then focused on the question of who was responsible for great success he especially praised the father of the current company owner, whose tireless creativity for many years laid the foundation for the current size of the company. But a large part of the success was also due to the loyal employees, the commercial, theoretical and practical staff, and he therefore paid sincere tribute to them. And the company has a large number of loyal employees on the lists of its 170 employees. 15 to 20 years and twenty-five for 10 to 15 years.”

rogerch

raagamuffin Interesting that it doesn't go all the way down the edge. I wonder if its got a purpose beyond hiding a joint..

My guess is that it keeps the soundboard attached to the inner rim on the bass side. On the treble side and along the curve of the case there are bolts attaching the plate and the soundboard to the inner rim. There is a gap between the plate and the extra piece of wood but it seems unlikely the soundboard would detach from the rim in the gap when it’s held down firmly on both sides if the gap.

Josephine

Gombessa

Yes, you can see a part of it. Most of the actionparts are removed by the way. I'm restoring it, but that will take another 120 years I'm afraid. I didn't do much last year.