Gershwin's "An American in Paris", part 1, played by Frank Milne in a 1933 Ampico Recording

[DuoArtOrgan]

I'd love to know what equipment you used to record this - superb sound, especially the bass!

[bartolomochristofari]

@DuoArtOrgan

Pretty simple. I use a couple of decent condenser mics, Audacity freeware on my laptop, and combine the .wav file audio with video captured on a separate camera in Windows Movie Maker. Mostly it is just a nice sounding piano.

[991dexter]

I am wondering what is the strange spring that is vibrating in front of the tuning pins?

[bartolomochristofari]

@991dexter

They are tension springs for small reservoir pneumatics, one bass and one treble, that help the Ampico play soft chords reliably.

[aknabea]

Interesting enough, in comparing Part one on the Foster upright and part 2 on the Steck Grand, I have to say that the Foster upright sounds better and has a better bass sound on the recordings. I bet the Foster has longer bass strings? Thank you for your videos of your wonderful pianos!

[bartolomochristofari]

@aknabea

You made me curious, so I looked it up, as I measure scales of all the instruments I work on. (I fit fully custom string scales--& most rebuilders don't know how to do anymore.) The bass string lengths of the Steck grand and Foster upright are very similar, with the lowest Steck bass string identical within 1/16" to the Foster. In person I think they sound similar. But the recording of the Steck done two years ago was with poorer mics, and probably doesn't do it justice.