Music Trade Review

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16
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
the break are strong strung with No. 19 wire.
This again is due to excessive tension. The
(Continued from page 15)
designer of both is, I am quite sure, the same
Internal evidence proves the assertion,
make wrong into any man's right; as the Hun man.
is finding to his cost after a half-century of although to discuss the facts would take too
long and more space than I have. In this sec-
self-mesmerism to the contrary.
If I mistake not, my old friend from Phila- ond piano, the strings immediately on each side
delphia has steered his bark by the light of the of the break can neither be correctly tuned nor
best good he knows. He is certainly a shining tone-regulated to coincide in quality with the
example of clean living, clean thinking, hard other parts of the scale. It is a weak spot of
work and simple ideals. He has most certainly the worst kind.
These examples may suffice to explain what I
made good. And the best of it is that, as al-
ways happens if one only will believe it, he mean. Can any reader tell me some concrete
experiences of the same sort, noting data as to
has been happy into the bargain.
wire gages, serial number of any given string-
THE WEAK POINT IN SMALL GRANDS group counting from bass end, length of strings
at points where weakness or falseness is noted,
It has been a matter of some considerable in- etc., etc.? Name of piano and age may be sup-
terest to me to search out and discover those plied and are desirable, but names will not be
defective places in the scales of small grand used.
pianos which give special trouble to the tuner.
I have just run across a grand piano five feet
Communications for this department should be
six inches, made some ten years or more ago, in address to William Braid White, care The Music
which the lowest plain-wire string, which is Bl, Trade Review, 373 Fourth avenue, New York
a ninth below middle C, simply cannot be tuned. City.
If the octave is tuned beatless, the minor-third-
major-sixth test is impossible; being all sharp
F. C.-COMER MAKES A CORRECTION
on the lower side. The same defect shows up
on all other interval tests. This scale has a
In his contribution to the recent symposium
bad spot extending up from this string for sev- published in The Review regarding "How a Re-
eral notes, owing entirely to the fact that the tail Piano Business Can Be Conducted on a
scale designer, in order to make his bridge look Proper Basis During Wartime," F. C. Comer,
pretty, has deliberately wasted a lot of his sound of the Starr Piano Co., Kansas City, was re-
board space and has scaled these strings far too ferred to as the manager of that store. Mr.
short. The twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth and Comer called our attention to the fact that C.
twenty-ninth are almost exactly the same length, V. Bissell is manager of the branch, while he,
and the shortening is nowhere near compensated himself, is retail manager.
for by over-weighting. Yet, the tension^ of the
scale is so high that the short strings in ques-
NEW PIERCE CO. STORE OPENED
tion vibrate almost as rods would. That is to
say, they have hardly any fundamental and are
TTOLYOKE, MASS., April 29.—The new store of
a mass of more or less concordant partials.
the L. M. Pierce Co., at 291 Maple street, was
I know another popular small grand scale in formally opened here last week, a special pro-
which the strings run down to No. 20 wire at gram being rendered, which included a demon-
the thirty-first from the bass end, and then, for stration of the Checkering Ampico reproducing
the remaining strings on the plain-wire side of piano. Arthur Berwick is manager of the store.
OUR TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT
Are YOU
Getting
Ready
The 6th of May
Thrift Stamp Day
In The U. S. A.
If you are not already familiar witli
the great purpose and plan of Thrift
Stamp Day, May 6th, 191.S,
Write for Plan
At Once
to Mr. W. Ward Smith, National War
Savings Committee, 51 Chambers
Street, New York City. Thrift Stamp
Day will insure the success of our
Government's War Savings Stamps
Campaign and also prove a tremen-
dous boost to business all over the
U. S. A. Will you grasp this goldeu
opportunity to help Uncle Sam and
help yourself? If so—
Get Busy!
The Biggest
Business Day
In History!
National War Savings
Committee
51 Chambers St., New York City
ws.s.
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT
(This advertising space donated by (his publication)
MAY
4, 1918
NORMAL TRADE IN TWIN CITIES
Industrial Conditions Excellent, and Piano Men
Are Doing Fair Amount of Business—Subur-
ban Conditions Good—Other News
ST. PAUL and MINNEAPOLIS, MINN., April 29.—
It would be most gratifying to every one con-
cerned to write that the piano merchants of St.
Paul and Minneapolis are in the midst of the
spring rush, that sales are numerous, that col-
lections are fine and that the Twins are on the
high wave of prosperity—it would be gratifying
to write thusly, but it would not be strictly true.
The piano men are not quite sure of the reason,
but they are quite aware that they are not do-
ing the business that they had looked for in
the spring time. It may be that they were
somewhat over optimistic last winter, but, real-
ly, they had expected something different.
There has been a great drive for the Third
Liberty Loan and in addition the draft is dis-
organizing commercial and industrial life to
some extent, and it may be that when conditions
have adjusted themselves again the piano dealers
will resume the even run of business. It might
be stated that all retail trade is in the same boat.
It was some consolation to learn from C. L.
Waldo, of Foster & Waldo, and S. W. Rauden-
bush, of Raudenbush & Sons, who returned this
week from California, that the Twin Cities may
compare in a favorable way with the cities of
California.
While the lull is on, there is not a great deal
of news. The house of Dyer reports that it
is doing a normal amount of business in Stein-
way pianos, but in other lines things are quiet.
Foster & Waldo report they are doing some
business all the time but everyone has to make
extra effort as business is harder to get than
usual.
The reports from the score of first-class piano
houses in Minneapolis and St. Paul are so nearly
alike that there is no occasion for repeating
them.
G. L. Mclntyre, of the John Church Co., and
Colonel Allen, of the A. B. Chase Co., were in
the Twin Cities during the week.
Industrially the Twin Cities are humming.
They have big steel plants engaged on war muni-
tions, tractor plants which turn out 75 per cent,
of the world's tractors, the biggest flour mills
in the world and the biggest grain elevators in
the world, Minneapolis being the center of the
wheat trade, the flax trade and the barley trade
of the United States—and all of these indus-
tries are in full drive, while the workers are be-
ing better paid than ever before. Financial-
ly this section of the country should be way
above par. The city of Minneapolis was al-
lotted $17,000,000 of Liberty Bonds and in six
days subscribed more than $20,000,000 and still
is going. St. Paul also went far above its quota,
as did all the three Northwestern States. It
probably is true that the zeal used in the loan
campaign reacted on other activities.
Only the most encouraging reports come from
the rural districts. The farmers are doing their
duty in a most satisfactory manner by making
every effort to increase the grain acreage. Au-
thorities now agree that Minnesota and the
Dakotas have sown from 20 to 25 per cent,
more grain this spring than in 1917.
GETS THE STEINWAY IN CALGARY
CALGARY, ALTA., April 30.—George H. Suckling,
well known to the music trade of Canada, has
opened up the music trade business in this city.
He has taken over the Nordheimer and Stein-
way agencies that have been held by the Hunt
Piano Co., Ltd., for many years. Since the
death of Mr. Hunt last year the business has
been continued by the family, under the super-
vision of Miss Hunt, whose marriage is now an-
nounced, and the Hunt Piano Co. retires from
business.
The P.arncs Furniture Co., LaGrange, la., has
installed a line piano department.