>Comments below: > >Terry Farrell > > >I would have to say that I don't really have enough experience with pianos >yet to have refined my tastes, let alone know all the details of what >design parameters produce preferred qualities. The little bit that I think >I know is smooth, even tone across the whole keyboard (good bass/tenor >break - consistent tone - no killer octave and the likelihood that one >will not develop for a long time, if ever), a piano with predictable >characteristics, a Stanwood-type keyboard/action, good sustain, a singing >high treble, enough power for the facility/use. I arrived at these few >characteristics by observation and what makes sense to me. > >In all honesty, for me, I draw heavily on my fairly broad amateur >experience with performance cars and sailboats.... > >Actually, a dream I have is someday, when I amass at least 873 kajillion >tons more knowledge about what makes pianos work, is to design a piano >that combines some of the best aspects of the pre-modern piano (maybe >something with many characteristics from the early 19th Century) - but it >would be a new piano, incorporating modern materials, and any design >innovations that have evolved since that time that seem appropriate (like >perhaps it would even have a full metal plate, but likely the string >tension would be similar to what it might have been back then). The >purpose would be to produce a piano that might have many of acoustical >properties of the pre-power-power-power pianos, but might incorporate >modern bridge-making techniques that would help reduce false beats, or >produce a more singing treble. I have similar ideas, which is one of the reasons that historical pianos interest me. And also why I am grateful that there are those working to keep them in original shape so that we can learn from them and experience different concepts of what pianos can be. > >Whatever, just wild thoughts I am sometimes plagued with. I have a similar infection. It sometimes feels like the plague, but I don't think I can get rid of it. Phil Ford
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