Sustain in European pianos

[Isaac OLEG]

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 Dear all,

I'll answer longer later, and may transfer the question to someone that
should certainly answer better than me, but I believe that basically we aim
for a very responsive tone since the start, that allow more dynamic
possibilities than if we where looking for sustain first.
Many European builders , nowadays, use stiff soundboards, large bridges, and
a lot of mass in the system to allow for a longer sustain. We could consider
that Steinway in
Europe is may be the make having the less sustain by design among the
others, but the tone have a strong carrying (?).

It is very clear to me, but without real numbers, that if I compare the tone
of an US S&S and a German one (I was going to write a French one !), the
voicing make the sustain longer and very apparent part of the tone on the US
one.

That may be well a reason too why many avoid lacquering, as an eventual
future problem for the resiliency of the hammers, and then a lost of the
expressive part present at the beginning of the tone.
.

I promise I will try to have a better answer soon.

The commercial war does not really make sense BMHO, but so many things are
said and done...

Best Regards.

Have a good Sunday

Isaac









    ----- Original Message -----
    From: Richard Brekne
    To: College and University Technicians
    Sent: December 07, 2002 9:25 AM
    Subject: Re: Sustain in European pianos


    Delwin D Fandrich wrote:

        From: Tim Coates

        Perhaps you would like to revisit Wapin.  Europe seems to be looking
for something like Wapin.  There have been European rebuilders inquiring
about Wapin. I don't have much experience with European pianos, but I
understand they have a very short sustain.
       So, my question (mostly, but not limited) to our European list
members is -- where has that reputation come from? Was this something that
was true in the past but is no longer? Is it still true with some
instruments but not with others? Has something changed recently in the
overall design and construction of some specific instrument makers which has
changed things? Or is this reputation generally unwarranted -- more US
propaganda we can attribute to the
anti-and-to-hell-with-the-rest-of-the-world leanings of our current
administration? In other words, what's up, folks? Del
    On the other hand of all this... there were a whole spiel of eastern
european pianos... DDR and Poland quickly come to mind, that produced a
bunch of really dead sustain, thuddy pianos.. Zimmerman was a great example
of that. For that matter, some English makes from some years back had
similiar qualities. Perhaps thats where the idea got started.

  Except that I've heard it applied mostly to the high-end European pianos.
Bluthner, C. Bechstein, Bosendorfer, Grotrian, Seiler, etc. Nobody really
expected much out of the others anyway.

  Del


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