Official Luthiers Forum!

I've been really busy for the last week or so and haven't been able post.

I thought that you folks would be interested the the following picture:



This was taken last May on a tour of the Mason & Hamlin piano factory in Haverhill, MA. It is of one of the rim benders. The fellow on the right is Bruce Clark, the chief engineer of the company. I'm the tall guy next to him. On the far left in my son, a Mechanical Engineering junior at UCONN. (Side note to Mike Mahar: He's a B04 in epee!)

This tour was a full day, in depth technical tour, soup to nuts of their production process. M&H is currently making about 500 world class pianos per year using both modern production methods and very old world type craftsmanship and techniques. Bruce went into quite a bit of detail about where each methodology was employed and why it was chosen. Many of these ideas have application to lutherie, I suspect.

Regards,
Chris

Wow! That would make a really big git-fiddle!

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Impressive looking, but...can it bend Waterfall Bubinga???

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Probably could but you could build ten guitars with the piece of WFB you'd need for that piano.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

   Just out of couriosity, do they use heat and moisture to make thier bends? I`d like to check out a piano factory some time.
   Sorry to be so late in asking, but my conection to the `net was down for a few days.

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Give me 50 cents worth of regular.
Check my oil too, if you don`t mind,,,

Steve & John...you guys think a lot about bending WFB. You're scaring me again!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

[QUOTE=John How] Probably could but you could build ten guitars with the piece of WFB you'd need for that piano.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, but only make 1/2 as much $$$!

As well as 10 times the headache.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

[QUOTE=JJ Donohue] Steve & John...you guys think a lot about bending WFB. You're scaring me again![/QUOTE]

Good! It's working.

Steve

_________________
From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com