piano differences

[David W. Pitsch]

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Del, I agree with what you wrote about hard hammers.  Even so, this
situation gains me a lot of income from voicing, and I would rather
begin with a hammer too hard than one that is too soft.
I've convinced the dealer that I work for that we need to "customize"
our grand pianos to the environment that they are sold to (ie. concert
hall, home, church).


Thank goodness for the Yamaha voicing tool.  I own two of them.  One has
a thinner, shorter needle, the other a longer, thicker needle so that I
don't have to keep changing needles as I move up and down the keyboard.

Delwin D Fandrich wrote:

>
>                                WARNING
>
> The following is probably a bit longer than most of the "one-liners"
> will want to wade through. It is also highly opinionated and wanders a
> bit. Just don't say you weren't warned...
>
> -- ddf
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> robert sadowski wrote:
>
>> Del,
>>     Could you elaborate on your comment about Steinway now trying to
>> imitate
>> the sound of the others? Have they changed their design philosophy?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Bob Sadowski
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Delwin D Fandrich <pianobuilders@olynet.com>
>> To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org>
>> Date: Saturday, January 31, 1998 3:17 AM
>> Subject: Re: piano differences
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Bob,
>
> No. I don't think that their design philosophy has changed. Certainly
> the design of their pianos hasn't. At least not discernibly.
>
> What has changed is the sound. It has become increasingly bright and
> hard. At least in the instruments I have heard of late. You can't do
> to piano hammers what they are doing to their piano hammers without
> hardening up and "linearizing" the sound. The perception seems to be,
> these days, (and not just with Steinway) that piano sound should be
> "bright" and "powerful" at all cost. Well, power and brilliance is
> available, but you have to start from the inside and work out. If you
> try to obtain it just from the hammers you simply end up with a hard,
> linear sound. What is getting lost are the dynamics that make a piano
> a pianoforte. I still maintain that the industry should get together
> and change the official name of the instrument to "Forte" since the
> "Piano" got lost somewhere in the Japanese/Korean invasion.
>
> I could understand why Kimball felt it necessary to attempt to emulate
> that hard, bright sound so typical of the Asian pianos. They were a
> mass market piano and, obviously, their sales were suffering from the
> popularity of the Asian imports. (I would speculate that had they
> concentrated on making their pianos better, rather than  just cheaper,
> they might have been more successful in their come-back, but that was
> not to be.) I can even understand why Baldwin wanted desperately for
> their pianos to sound like Yamaha's during the eighties. But Steinway
> should remain above that. I don't say this because of any warm, fussy
> feelings about the piano or the company on my part. I should think it
> would simply be good business. Historically, Steinway was always the
> leader in establishing the piano tone standard of the world. And it
> was a role they handled well through the forties and fifties. Now it
> seems, they are following.
>
> I realize that sales are important. Especially in the case of
> mass-market pianos. That doesn't mean that companies like Steinway
> have to bow to the tone standards set by those companies. I should
> think that the market is there. At least in our experience there are a
> lot of folks looking for something beyond what the industry is capable
> of providing in terms of piano tone. (I might add that a lot of these
> folks already have pianos. Many of them have older Steinways. They
> would trade up in a heartbeat if there was something available that
> excited them. Instead they have them rebuilt.) There is room in the
> world for both.
>
> Well, I ramble. But, at least our fire extinguishers are all in good
> shape...
>
> Regards,
>
> Del



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