I'm not going to address the technial/mechanical advantages or disadvantages of a curved key line, or Steinway's factory explanation. But I will point out that the idea that a straight line will appear to sink, and that a slightly bowed or curved line will have "life," is an old principle of classical architecture, and certainly in the vocabulary of 19th century design. The principle is that the line should curve just enough to "look straight." If you can see the curve, you've gone too far. Steinway was not the only piano to use a curved key line. Perhaps wrongly, I have taken it for granted that all late 19th century pianos should have a very slight rise to the center of the key line, but I have no authoritative reference for this. My new Wessell, Nickel & Gross straight edge curves up about 1mm in the up "right" position. Ed S. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090627/bb2481db/attachment.htm>
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