Speaking of Fandrich Pianos

[John Delacour]

At 12:15 -0600 29/2/08, Alan Barnard wrote:

>If you have not seen this, do so!
>It's interesting, instructive, and positive.
> 
><http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d5fc6eKWqA&feature=related>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d5fc6eKWqA&feature=related

Yes, it's interesting, and it would be good to hear a proper 
recording of the piano.

By coincidence I took delivery last week of a Kirkman "Vertical Iron 
Grand" from 1891, which is just an inch taller than another I bought 
last year and very similar in design.  What is striking about these 
pianos, and especially the taller one (which has a 45 mm bridge) is 
the clarity and power, and precisely that lack of "muddiness" that is 
characteristic of so many overstrung uprights.  Both these pianos are 
vertically strung, and a Lipp oblique-strung I also have is equally 
impressive.  The Lipp overstrung is also one of very few overstrung 
uprights that could be mistaken for a grand.

The worst enemy of tone in an upright is the top door, especially 
nowadays -- I could hardly bear the weight of the top door I took off 
a Wendl and Lung the other day!  But overstringing does nothing at 
all for clarity of tone.  Unfortunately it's impossible to get good 
tone right down to the bottom on an upright of acceptable height. 
Grands is another matter.

What I mean by clarity is hard to describe, but it is a quality not 
only of an individual note but of the whole piano that enables each 
register of the instrument to sound as it were separately like the 
voices in a cantata without getting all mixed up like the sound of a 
Tannoy at a rally, and this quality above all others constitutes the 
tone of a good piano for me.

Another interesting and beautiful feature of these Kirkmans is the 
effect of the loud pedal, which again is hard to describe fully.  I 
have found this effect before ony on certain models of Lipp and 
Brinsmead.  The lifting of the dampers causes an immediate "blooming" 
and enrichment of the tone of the notes held down, and besides that, 
even with the dampers lifted, the clarity and definition of notes is 
not completely lost as it is in most pianos.

I also have a Brinsmead vertical from about 1880 which has something 
resembling Del's "impedance bar" as well as one or two other 
curiosities, but not at all the same.  It's a long time since I heard 
this piano, since it's unstrung, and I don't remember its being very 
exciting like the Lipp and the Kirkmans, but we shall see one day. 
One thing I am pretty sure of, and that is that a tall bridge is very 
significant.  Both the overstrung and the oblique-strung Lipp and the 
smaller Kirkman have bridges 40 mm tall and the latest Kirkman, as I 
have said, has a full 45 mm. like two Kirkman grands I have.  There 
is nothing "old-fashioned" about the tone of any of them -- on the 
contrary they would put most modern uprights to shame.  If Del has 
discovered a way to produce the sort of quality I look for in an 
upright piano, and it seems perhaps he has, then it's definitely good 
news.

If only people were more fussy about piano tone and response! 
Unfortunately most people have always been satisfied with very 
mediocre pianos and been prepared to pay good money for mediocre or 
plain lousy pianos from a few well-marketed names.

JD