pitch

[John Delacour]

At 5:43 PM -0800 1/10/02, Robert Wilson wrote:

>Joe,
>
>Apologies if I misunderstood you - I thought you were
>in favour of hiking everything up to A440 regardless
>of the original pitch - I wonder how I came to
>mis-read you.

If Joe thinks this, then I reckon he's about right.

>If you enjoy working on 100 year old English pianos
>and the worst ones to boot, then I don't know whether
>to feel sorry for you or admire you!  Here, even
>rebuilt, they are worth next to nothing because no-one
>with any sense wants them. If you get some of the
>cracked, rusty, moth-eaten low grade uprights I have
>come across, it must be akin to resurrecting corpses!

The first ten years of the last century was when output of pianos in 
Europe was at its highest and quality at a higher level than it ever 
has been.  1914-18 quite literally killed the skills.  At this period 
vast quantities of excellent pianos were being produced even in 
England and many of them are as good today as they were then and 
infinitely superior to anything produced since.

I choose to work on the pianos I like best and every piano I am 
currently working on and have in stock for rebuilding is over 90 
years old.  I also make sure to buy pianos that have not been helped 
to an early grave by the attentions of English so-called restorers.

You sound to me as though you have a lot to learn.

JD