Tuning Steinway Verticals

[A440A@aol.com]

I wrote: 
>Greetings,
>   I bought a worn out Steinway. Repinned the action and put in some new 
>strings and hammers.  It cost me $250 to buy and it has been rented for
$150 a 
>month for the last 6 years............ >>

Don asks: 
<< 
Are you saying you could not repin a worn out Yamaha or Kawai and rent
those out?>

Exactly!  
    "Eleanor",(the 1892 Steinway upright) is rented into a jazz club here in 
Nashville.  It is played, and played hard,(I have to replace the occasional 
shattered flange) about 5 nights a week.  They could have bought any number of 
used Yamaha or Kawai or Young Chang or other brands that regularly appear for 
sale around here, but they wanted something that the musicians were drawn to, 
and this piano does that.  I keep it in a well temperament,(presently a 
Broadwood but it has lived for months in a Young) and I get numerous comments on how 
that particular piano has the classic upright sound.  
   It is brighter than I like, and I remember when it was first rehammered it 
had a huge sound, but it cuts through the noise of the bar and holds its own 
with a wide variety of groups.  
   Perhaps performance venues are the exceptions, but there is, imho, 
something about those turn of the century Steinway uprights that is hard to beat. 
This piano tunes like a creampuff and stays that way for a long time.  It is 
responsive and has a wide range of tone and power.  It plays as fast as needed, 
and has been a tremendous investment for me. I have to wonder if a Yamaha 
upright would create the same attraction. 
   There is nothing definite about this, just my own experience as I see it. 
regards,  
Ed Foote RPT 
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
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