Fw: query

[pianoman]

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> From: pianoman <pianoman@inlink.com>
> To: pianotech@ptg.orhg
> Subject: query
> Date: Sunday, June 22, 1997 9:15 AM
> 
>  Here it is on a gloomy Sunday morning.
> 	I have been told that the last 2 American pianos with European
(Romantic)
> tonal design were the Steinway "O" and the "A" series of different sizes.

> I further seem to remember that the bass strings in the "O" are the same
as
> the "L".  Is this technically incorrect?
> What changed in the "O & L" to make them different pianos?
> Why did Steinway choose to make different sizes and configurations (85n &
> 88n) of the "A" rather than call them by different model designations?
> As I understand it, the European philosophy was to have different tonal
> qualities between the wound strings and the steel strings as compared to
a
> more uniform voicing scheme in American pianos.  Is this wrong?
> On Sohmer grands with Agraffes on the treble bridge, are they working
with
> a combination of up and down bearing at the same time?  Why did this
design
> get dis-continued?
> Very early in my career (early 1960's) I remember seeing a Special
version
> of the Sohmer piano ( a console) that was some kind of special model that
> had an ivory coloured plate and it seems like I remember a Rosewood
> veneered case (I'm not sure on that ).  Has anyone else seen a Sohmer
like
> that ?
> 	In the past I have found that repinning a Baldwin grand for earliest
> through the 1930's(at least ) was a exercise in futility and that if you
> didn't replace the block then you would for free a little  later. I had
to
> do this once in the 60's.  The strange thing I have found is that the
> cheaper Baldwins (Howards, Sargents, and the like would take repinning
> quite well.  Have you had this experience and what was the reason this
> would be true?  In what year of manufacture could you start reliably
repin
> a Baldwin block?
> Any input on these questions on a gloomy Sunday morning?
>    James Grebe
>         R.P.T.
>    from St. Louis
> pianoman@inlink.com
> "A cheap piano lasts almost as long as a fine one, even though you wished
> it wouldn't
> JG