Hi, Definitely the belly work is core; much more important in the process than tone regulation. By the time an instrument gets to the latter points of the process, the most the tone regulator can reasonably hope to do is to give the instrument as full a voice as possible without overemphasizing the weak spots of the particular system/piano. Selections in NY can be difficult to parse, too. It's never clear how much time is spent on the instruments, how big the pool of technicians doing the work might be, or how consistent the concept of tone and touch might be between them. From that standpoint, if you're working with a local dealer that is large enough to host a real selection, there will probably be only one or two technicians working on the instruments, so (for better or worse) the degree and quality of prep will be much more regular between them. Actually, after too long a time of too much unpredictability and inconsistency, I think we're getting better instruments overall now than we have since the later-50's/early-60's. While there's still "stuff" (...there's always "stuff"...), and some of it isn't small, it seems as if some of the more egregious manufacturing problems are gradually being worked out. With Ron Losby at the helm, I suspect that the degree of convergence between NY and Hamburg will continue to increase. It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds. Best. Horace At 09:00 PM 2/14/2011, Jim Busby wrote: >David, > >I think the bellies. In voicing class, and in >the other 3 classes we also had 4 different >pianos and got to tweak them, try different >things, and they were a mixed bag. IOW, if it >wasnât the belly and just the hammers you >could technically make them all sound about the >same using the same voicing techniques, right? >No way here, IMO. They were different beasts. I >wish I had your rebuilding chops and could give a better answer. > >Jim Busby > > >From: caut-bounces at ptg.org >[mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of David Love >Sent: Monday, February 14, 2011 9:01 PM >To: caut at ptg.org >Subject: Re: [CAUT] Steinway "sound" > >Jim: > >The other question I meant to ask is with >respect to the experiences you had at the >factory. Do you think the differences in the >Bâs were owing to differences in the bellies >themselves or just differences in the amount of >prep work given to the Dâs over the >Bâs? Recently a batch of new Bâs were >delivered to Stanford and before they were >dispersed to the various rooms around I had >chance to go through them side by side. There >were a lot more similarities than differences to >me. Some differences could be accounted for by >hammer density alone, you could tell. And some >other differences were sectional, some killer >octaves were better than others and there were a >few odd clunker notes here and there but they >seemed to be mostly termination problems. Tenor >and bass sections were very much alike. I >donât think I sat down to any one of them and >said, wow now thatâs different, though I had my favorites. > >David Love >www.davidlovepianos.com > > > > > > >Iâve been in the selection room in NY and the >tone was all over the place with Bs but not >quite as much with Ds, in my opinion. What I was >hinting at is our worn out question; donât Ds >in concert halls, as well as the Steinway C&A Ds >have a certain characteristic tone that is >âSteinwayâ? I agree with what you said below >that we have the ability to reproduce it (last >sentence below) but nearly all the rebuilds >Iâve heard are not like Steinway. Nor do they >try to be. Thatâs why (I think) Brent made his >statements. Not in disrespect to anyone, but who >might better duplicate the âSteinway soundâ >if there is such an animal, than Steinway? Now >Iâll bow out and let all the retorts fly. <G> > >Best, >Jim > >
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