Hello William,
Let me explain my position and address my alleged pedantic attitude.Since not claiming to be as smart as most here I had to look the word upand am pleased. One who is overly concerned with precision is onedefinition, thank you, just don't look at my damper work. For a number of reasons the factory stringing techniques are inadequate and lack care. So that's why I said I will string and drill them myself. They are still having loose pin issues and I don't know why. The integrity of the blocks are fine, but my success wasdrilling slow with a .257 but now I would go smaller to a .254. Trustbut verify is my motto. The larger issue about what I am saying, andI have said it before. It's not that hard to build a high quality board bya number of great rebuilders in this country but it's much more difficultto build a bridge set and guess what, plugged bridges, or bridges that are routed down to the root and replaced with solid quarter-sawn
wooddoesn't define custom or high quality in my experience. I hope those out there that have jigged up for each Steinway model to build laminated bridges and have figured out how to rout a crown in the bridge that is slightly greater than that of the board should answer to the differences. I've drilled newSteinway bridges. The hardness and consistency of new laminated maple is the standard I go by when comparing both but still more difficult is the bridge crowning issue. Depending on what model it can vary from three-eighthsto a half-inch and old bridges have little left in them. As far as varnish on the board. If you are spraying lacquer with sealersyou might as well include damper chasers for both sides of the piano.It's semi-permeable as opposed to nearly impermeable with varnish anda good sealer is using fresh German shellac flakes obtainable from " Toolsfor Woodworking " in NYC. They have the best badger hair brushesas well. So
that's my story William and I'm sticking to it. Better go causemy wife is in a fabulous mood and it's Valentines Day.
Brent
--- On Mon, 2/14/11, William Monroe <bill at a440piano.net> wrote:
From: William Monroe <bill at a440piano.net>
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Steinway rebuilds
To: caut at ptg.org
Date: Monday, February 14, 2011, 3:20 PM
Completely agree, Mr. Love.
I couldn't quite tell if Mr. Fischer was speaking with his tongue in his cheek or not. His post is a bit confusing to me. It begins with, [of course you must send it to them for the belly] which is a statement usually reserved for those who are hard-line company men, but then is followed up with don't let them drill it or string it - which flies in the face of the reasoning for sending it to NY for the board in the first place. Half of the post seems like it was in jest, but hard to tell.
William R. Monroe
On Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 3:06 PM, David Love <davidlovepianos at comcast.net> wrote:
Send it to Steinway if you need to be able to say “well, I sent it to Steinway” no matter what the outcome, kind of like the hammer discussion. But the outcomes can vary. There are lots of other very good (maybe better) options with quality rebuilders who will take a much more custom approach to the project and can deliver a very high quality performance piano with all the characteristics you are looking for and more. And like Dale says, varnish has nothing to do with it.
David Lovewww.davidlovepianos.com
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Brent Fischer
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2011 12:22 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Steinway rebuilds
Truth sir, you are spot on, like white on rice. Send it to the Steinway
restoration center for the real driving tonal power you have come to expect fromthem. Of course, you are aware that you don't want them to drill or string
it for you, but you will get a performance quality sound that you want andfurthermore they still varnish the boards instead of coatings that let as
much as 38% more moisture penetrate the cell structure. And if youwant to get the plate processed correctly ship it to Austrailia and
have Overs do his termination hardening repairs. Steinway won't mind,just let them pick the plate color. Brent
--- On Mon, 2/14/11, Mckeever, James I <mckeever at uwp.edu> wrote:
From: Mckeever, James I <mckeever at uwp.edu>
Subject: [CAUT] Steinway rebuilds
To: "caut at ptg.org" <caut at ptg.org>
Date: Monday, February 14, 2011, 9:02 AMThanks to everyone for the discussion of laminated soundboards, especially Del Fandrich.
Now a question about Steinway soundboards. A rebuilder once told me he prefers not to replace Steinway soundboards, because a replacement never quite gives you the “Steinway sound.”
Any truth to it?Thanks,
Jim McKeever
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20110214/b93bab9b/attachment-0001.htm>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC