I agree in one sense. The trichotomous structure of tone building: scale, soundboard, hammer, makes trying to make every piano sound the same a somewhat futile endeavor anyway. Though some people do seem to try. The tonal character of a piano goes well beyond what can be achieved by voicing alone (or we could make less expensive Steinways by putting Steinway hammers on Yamahas) so like it or not we're stuck with pianos that sound different anyway. It is true that we can choose bright or dark and manipulate the sound to some degree but we can't make a Steinway sound like a Bosendorfer no matter how hard we try and we have to let our commitment to custom work trump whatever direction our natural inclinations push us. With touchweight it's a bit different. A particular piano doesn't choose to be light or heavy in the same way a tonal signature is stamped into the design. This is a mechanical procedure that can, with relative ease, be manipulated depending on the desires of the player and our will and expertise to do the work. If we have to make a choice for an instrument that's used by a broad spectrum of pianists then we are almost forced to choose some middle ground. Similarly if we are offering one for sale we can commit to a particular touchweight knowing that if someone wants it changed it's not that big a deal. For me, at least with concert instruments and with instruments offered for sale, I would tend to err on the lighter side (BW 35 - 37 ) than on the heavy side (BW 40+). More complaints come from actions that are too heavy than too light except from those who simply want heavy as a means of pianistic calisthenics. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com Another great pianist once told me that he wished technicians would stop trying to make all pianos play and sound the same!! (I had asked what advice he could give me.) He said "Let the piano be what it wants to be; this one brighter, that one darker, one heavier and another lighter touch." This really opened things up for me. We walked around and he played several pianos (all Steinways at Snow College) and he said "This one would be great for (such and such) piece. And that one for (such and such) concerto. And this one has a very heavy touch compared to that one, but I like them both!" In fact I've had three giants of the piano at different times tell me the same basic things. All were amazing and had won about every major competition you've ever heard of. When I do have their ear (and it's easy when they're in rural Utah with time to waste) I always ask the question "what advice can you give me as a technician". I know Fred Sturm would agree that he likes a variety in his pianos, but your question as to "which" is more desirable BW or DW, I'm not sure can be answered easily. My 4 bits. Regards, Jim Busby -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090928/fdaf7efc/attachment.htm>
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