Wurzen felt

[David C. Stanwood]

>>   There is a recording made at Elon College NC on a Steinway D 1926 that
>> you put a beautiful beautiful board in...  John Foy, the rebuilder,
>> requested a TopHigh hammer weight when I designed touch weight components.
>> This piano is VERY popular.  Ruth Laredo raved about it etc....  There is a
>> recording recently made with this piano and the tone is vibrant, and as
>> varied as a painters palette.  I'll get more information on this if anyone
>> on the list wants to order it and have listen...  
>
>Thanks David but I am sure I had nothing to do with its success. Surly 
>someone has rectified all my mistakes. Having read many of the posts 
>here about the marvels of piano re-engineering from the most notable 
>rebuilders around I now know that if you want to have any success form a 
>Steinway D you must do a lot more than I did. Shame on me but I didn't 
>redesign the string scale or move the bridge. Nor did I do anything 
>about the absurdly short back string lengths (I am just scared to death 
>of the sparks from a metal grinder). I am sure John Foy spent a lot of 
>time redoing my work. What did he do about the soundboard? I now realize 
>that the steinway people had no idea how to build a soundboard. Gosh, I 
>didn't even install a longer cut-off bar or move the position of the ribs!
>
>John Hartman RPT

John,

You made a beautiful board, a reproduction of the original did you not?
It's beautiful work and John Foy set up the action with TopHigh hammer
weights (Hamburg Hammers) and voiced it beautifully.  He took a long time
to develop the tone..... John Foy didn't redo any of your work, he just did
what he does very well. You did what you do very well, I helped with the
TouchDesign. etc.... it's called "Team Rebuilding"....  I think it's the
best way to make the best rebuilt pianos.  The piano sold for a record
price by virtue of it's quality...

Cheers,

David