This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment Dear all, I'll answer longer later, and may transfer the question to someone that should certainly answer better than me, but I believe that basically we aim for a very responsive tone since the start, that allow more dynamic possibilities than if we where looking for sustain first. Many European builders , nowadays, use stiff soundboards, large bridges, and a lot of mass in the system to allow for a longer sustain. We could consider that Steinway in Europe is may be the make having the less sustain by design among the others, but the tone have a strong carrying (?). It is very clear to me, but without real numbers, that if I compare the tone of an US S&S and a German one (I was going to write a French one !), the voicing make the sustain longer and very apparent part of the tone on the US one. That may be well a reason too why many avoid lacquering, as an eventual future problem for the resiliency of the hammers, and then a lost of the expressive part present at the beginning of the tone. . I promise I will try to have a better answer soon. The commercial war does not really make sense BMHO, but so many things are said and done... Best Regards. Have a good Sunday Isaac ----- Original Message ----- From: Richard Brekne To: College and University Technicians Sent: December 07, 2002 9:25 AM Subject: Re: Sustain in European pianos Delwin D Fandrich wrote: From: Tim Coates Perhaps you would like to revisit Wapin. Europe seems to be looking for something like Wapin. There have been European rebuilders inquiring about Wapin. I don't have much experience with European pianos, but I understand they have a very short sustain. So, my question (mostly, but not limited) to our European list members is -- where has that reputation come from? Was this something that was true in the past but is no longer? Is it still true with some instruments but not with others? Has something changed recently in the overall design and construction of some specific instrument makers which has changed things? Or is this reputation generally unwarranted -- more US propaganda we can attribute to the anti-and-to-hell-with-the-rest-of-the-world leanings of our current administration? In other words, what's up, folks? Del On the other hand of all this... there were a whole spiel of eastern european pianos... DDR and Poland quickly come to mind, that produced a bunch of really dead sustain, thuddy pianos.. Zimmerman was a great example of that. For that matter, some English makes from some years back had similiar qualities. Perhaps thats where the idea got started. Except that I've heard it applied mostly to the high-end European pianos. Bluthner, C. Bechstein, Bosendorfer, Grotrian, Seiler, etc. Nobody really expected much out of the others anyway. Del ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/a3/ab/d4/4b/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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