Probably anything a re- designer would produce would have been an improvement over the 4 yr old B I heard in concert Last week. Thin, noisy and clangy bass strings that sounded like a banjo. Just sheer noise above an MF level. Ugghh. All that & I work on this piano. The artist thought it just needed to be played in. Naah. I find they either have it or they don't. Next time I'm loaning him a piano....seriously. Its all set up. The piano itself gets press and exposure and the ears of some will notice a huge difference. I don't think artist experience what we do in the small world of redesigned piano except, David A and I a few others are trying to change that at least on a small scale. Give some one a big sound with clarity and projection and a treble that can sing and they won't care what the fall board says with those kind of tonal resources. ROn N._ DUde.... Love to hear your piano in a small venue again! Dale S. Erwin www.Erwinspiano.com Custom restoration Ronsen Piano hammers Join the Weickert felt Revolution 209-577-8397 209-985-0990 -----Original Message----- From: Jim Busby <jim_busby at byu.edu> To: caut at ptg.org <caut at ptg.org> Sent: Mon, Feb 21, 2011 11:29 pm Subject: [CAUT] Should performers rule? (Was Lacquered hammers) Hi Fred, All, I agree (below) NOT because I want to, but because pianists like you seem to need that. We have 7 nine foot pianos for concert use, all different brands except 2 NY Ds, (which are voiced very differently). The piano that I love to play is never chosen, with pianists saying things like "no power" and "no change of color". One of the NY Ds is so abrasive to my ears that I simply can't play it, but guess what? That piano is chosen over my favorite 100 percent of the time. I am dumbfounded by this! Now remember, we have pianists like Wu Han, Neilita True (sp?), Menahem Presler, etc. Not just faculty and piano majors. After witnessing dozens of fine pianists trying the pianos one begins to see what seems to be preferred. And believe me, I ask them! Should performers rule in how our concert hall pianos sound? Well, as long as they have a choice between more perceived power, control, and timbre change, as you said, then like it or not, they do. (perceived at the bench. Pianists don't seem to care what it might sound like in the hall even if told that it's better out there). After years at the bench this IS their reality) This (performer selection) seems to be what has caused the "homogenized" piano sound Laurence mentioned. One "Steinway artist" tried our Yamaha CF and after playing one (1) chord she exclaimed "Oh my! That simply won't do!" BTW, the Yamaha techs had just visited and prepped the piano, so it wasn't my technical chops that precipitated the "oh my". Except for this example I won't name other brands. Those of you who redesign pianos have a daunting task. How can you bear to risk an "Oh my - that won't do"? When I first changed the title of this thread to "Steinway sound" I didn't realize the chatter, and sometimes rancor, that it would cause. But I've learned a lot. When a 10 or 15 second plop down at a piano is all some pianists take in selecting I can't imagine the pressure of trying to design something to compete with some of the sound canons produced nowadays. Respectfully, Jim Busby <<<<< I guess my point is that the principle that pianos should be made so that it is impossible to hit the keys so hard that they will distort, is not a sound principle. It ends up being counterproductive in other ways. Regards, Fred Sturm fssturm at unm.edu http://www.createculture.org/profile/FredSturm>>>>> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20110222/829e4258/attachment-0001.htm>
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