Greetings

[Newton Hunt]

Hello All, 

I am back from Cuba after a two week stint of teaching and regulating.

If you think there are some problem prone, unstable and less satifactory
pianos on the American market place, you should see what the Russians
have been making!

My student and I worked on a MOCKBA (Moskva made in Moskow) which has a
renner action and hammers, but is the worst copy of a Steinway D you can
imagine.  The action is not set up properly, which makes regulation for
a fine touch difficult and the sound is much less than flexible.

The Estonia is worse, but better.  It has a nice tone and can sound
rather nice, but the action is a nightmare.  It started life as a
Herberger-Brooks Schwander style, but the keys are a disgrace,
especially for a nine foot piano, and the action setup is all wrong. 
What a pain.

We were able to improve them substantially, but not to what I would like
to have them be.  Oh, well, silk purses and sow's ears.

I have been enjoying reading the threads that evolved while I was gone
and I will be responding to various ones from time to time.

I am so glad to get home where the food is predictable, the showers are
hot, the toilets have wooden seats and sewers work well.

The Cubans desperately need knowledge, skills, parts, tools and
supplies; everything we take for granted, even this list, is not
available to them.  They have been cut off from most of the world for 30
years, and whatever pianos skills were once there have not been passed
on to the second and third generations, yet they are far more involved
with music of all kinds than we Americans.

In all the time I was there, I saw two good pianos;  a two year old
Hamburg D in superior condition and next to it a 15 year old Hamburg D,
which needs new hammers and strings, but functioned well.

Everything else is a disaster from corrosive humidity and termite
infestations.  Simple things like string replacement to minor regulation
are unknown there.  Even teaching instruments are in severe states of
deteriation.

I am SO glad to be back home, again.

It makes me appreciate what I have even more, including this list of
friends.

	Newton