How old did you say he was?!!!

New from: Rodgers' Piano @ http://www.pianorestoring.com/frames.htm
By now, I'm sure many folks out there have heard of Adriann Mann.  A Kiwi teen boy who built his own piano.  I have been rebuilding these things for over two decades and even I stand in awe of much of what this kid has done.  I'm sure that most average piano enthusiasts won't get the real cool aspects of his piano and so I thought I'd blog about them myself.


First of all, why is this piano so long?  Was he out to set some sort of record?  According to Adriann, he was not.  But a lesson in the physics of vibrating strings will show you that the lowest frequencies on a modern piano have to be produced by weighting the string down in order to slow it because of increased "inertia."  Adriann, for reasons of necessity or choice, (you'd have to ask him) made his piano completely out of plain music wire with no special bass strings with extra windings on them.  Therefore, the piano had to be incredibly long.  He actually left a few notes off the end.  If he had put the last few notes on the bottom of the piano, he would have had to increase its length another, what, four feet...
Adriann faced a trade off.  He's so smart, he may have known this from the beginning but who knows.  By using plain wire, he made for a piano whose low notes do not have the complex, often problematic "overtone" problems that wound or weighted strings can make.  So his bass will sound cleaner, purer and be easier to tune than any other.  What's the trade off?  If made properly, weighted (or wound) strings have a great deal more heft and, therefore, ability to pump the piano's sound board.  In other words the concert grand with wound strings will be louder.  His piano has lots of power, but a long piano with wound strings would have even more.
Still, I've heard this piano played at this URL:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PI8RYIeypM


There are other Utube presentations about this piano but this one is the one to see if you really want to "see" the piano.  Adriann solved a ton of problems that such long strings produce with very clever ideas.  He didn't have access to Steinway's multi-million dollar rim presses to make the piano.  He had 2"x4" lumber from the local lumber yard.  Yet, he made a solid case that helps produce the sound despite its lack of hardness and construction rigidity.  He made a plate that should be strong enough to hold the tension of three pianos like his and I think that little bugger actually shaped, cut and welded it up himself.  Good Grief!!!


He repurposed sound boards and keys from other pianos and reworked them so they would function in his piano.  He had to make the keys extra, extra long because the plate had to be made to accommodate those long strings.  Piano hammers have to hit the strings at the same point on all the strings.  So if middle C hits the string at 1/8 of its length, then the lowest note on the piano has to hit that string at 1/8 of its length.  That means moving the strings and the action around until it all lines up.  He could have made each key a different length in order to simplify the way the plate and strings were put together.  They used to do that very thing on old square grand pianos.  But that was not in his thinking since it really does make every key feel different than the others.


Those long keys had to have extra wood put on them so they would be rigid and that made for keys that were heavy, long and with a lot of "inertia" again.  It probably does not play as lightly and responsiviley as many of the cutting edge designs people like Wayne Stewart and myself are developing.  But who cares.  It's still incredible!  This kid is going places.
Adriann.  If I could take you in and complete your training I would be honored.  You have a future in pianos ahead of you.  I only hope you maintain your interest because I suspect your next project will be a miniaturized nuclear reactor to run your family's home electric from!