<html> <head> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 10 (filtered)"> <style>  </style> </head> <body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space;-khtml-line-break: after-white-space'> <div class=Section1> <p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>I just want to comment on one aspect of this.  Two of my customers come to mind.  Both have Steinway B’s and they are basically the same vintage.  In fact, I rebuilt them both.  Both customers love their pianos and I have the emails and correspondence to back that up.  But if I were to swap pianos between them, they would both be unhappy.  The reasons are pretty obvious.  One of them likes a very firm touch dynamic.  His piano has a BW of 44 grams.  The other customer likes it very light.  The balance weight there is 34 grams.  The one who likes it heavier also likes the piano very brilliant, even edgy with power being the primary goal.  The other party likes the piano very dark without any stridence or even any pinging in the treble.  Both are very good pianists and play quite expressively.  What does that tell us?  The range into which both of these pianos fall is broad but not exceptional.  Were I to have targeted the manufacturers straight line target both would be unsatisfied and the pianos, to them, would be just mediocre.  While the pianos are quite different I wouldn’t say that either one is un-Steinway like.  They simply represent either end of the spectrum of what the pianos can produce.  While an employee of a manufacturer must abide by the requirements dictated by the marketing department, we, as technicians and (hopefully) artists are not bound by such constraints.   </span></font></p> <p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p> <p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Customizing pianos and using our own artistic sensibilities is risky in some ways.  You take a chance and expose yourself to criticism by taking the initiative to do something different.  But there is a relationship between risk and reward.  Personally, I am not satisfied with just delivering what the manufacturer recommends.  In many ways it’s safer.  To my customers I can simply say, “that’s how the piano is supposed to be according to my training”.  In the end, however, in order to satisfy your customers, you need to be willing to step out of the box and exercise your own artistic judgment coupled with good communication skills to deliver what they want.  After all, it will be your customer who plays the piano, not the C&A department at Steinway.  That is often what will differentiate you from others and, btw, shouldn’t preclude you from giving it to them by the book either—if that’s what they want.  </span></font></p> <p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p> <p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Neither, btw, should you be concerned about manufacturer identity.  No matter what you do, you will not turn a Yamaha into a Steinway or a Steinway into a Yamaha.  Overriding design differences will take care of that for you.   </span></font></p> <p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p> <div> <p><font size=2 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt; color:navy'>David Love<br> davidlovepianos@comcast.net<br> www.davidlovepianos.com</span></font><font color=navy><span style='color:navy'> </span></font></p> </div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>-----Original Message-----<br> <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>From:</span></b> caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org] <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b></span></font><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Jeff Tanner</span></font><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Tahoma'><br> <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Wednesday, September 19, 2007 1:50 PM<br> <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> </span></font><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>College and University Technicians</span></font><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'><br> <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Re: [CAUT] My take on them, (was The "new" S&S Hammers).</span></font></p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> <div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>On Sep 15, 2007, at 12:42 PM, Richard Brekne wrote:</span></font></p> </div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><br> <br> </span></font></p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span class=apple-style-span><font size=1 color=black face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family: Helvetica;color:black'><span style='border-spacing: 0px 0px;text-align:auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none;-apple-text-size-adjust: auto; orphans: 2;widows: 2;word-spacing:0px'>All this goes back to my origional post on this matter.  Get your own voice and voicing style down pat.  And select the hammers that YOU prefer working with to get it.  It is not IMHO even remotely neccessary to adhere to someone elses idea of what any given piano should sound like.  The window for acceptable voicing is actually quite large... which means for every 10 pianists you wow.... there are at the very least another 10 who will be less then impressed.</span></font></span><font size=1 color=black face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family: Helvetica;color:black'><br> <br> <span class=apple-style-span>My take.. :)</span></span></span></font></p> </div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Ric,</span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>I'd like to ask a question regarding this philosophy:  </span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>What if the factory installers took this approach and advice?  What identity, if any, would then be associated with the NY Steinway or any other manufacturer where there was no control over the manufacturing process?  What then, could be attributed to the instrument that would make it a NY Steinway or a Hamburg Steinway or a Bosendorfer or a Bechstein or a Yamaha or a Kawai?  What would the name on the plate and fallboard mean?  What would that name be worth?</span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>I don't think anyone on this list can argue with the idea that most all of us are accomplished artists in our very own right.  We each have earned reputations for our work that has built our careers.  We all take pride in our work -- our art, our <<brand>> if you will.</span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>But in this area, here is where I take my pride out of the equation.  It is not my name on the fallboard.  I have not been building pianos since 1853 or whenever.  I have not spent 150 plus years developing an identity that is uniquely mine, that has come to represent something to the world.  When a performer walks up to a piano with a certain name on the fallboard, he or she has a certain expectation for what kind of sound and performance it has based on that name and their previous experience with other examples of it.  If a performer finds a NY Steinway, there is a certain expectation that comes from that.  If one finds Hamburg, there is another expectation.  If one finds Yamaha, Kawai, Bechstein, Bosendorfer, etc., again each has built a reputation for something different and I personally had nothing to do with it.  </span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>With that in mind, I don't think I have one iota of credibility to infuse my own personal taste to make a sweeping change of the tonal/response characteristics of any manufacturer's product.  That product is the very identity of the company, and I don't feel I have the right to infuse my own preferences beyond working with the parts that make up the formula of that identity, whether it be an improvement in my opinion or not.  So, with my limited experience and knowledge, I try to rely on the maintenance/rebuilding processes -tone building/voicing in this case- as taught by that manufacturer so that it maintains or mimics as closely as possible, the character of tone/response - identity - that manufacturer has built a reputation for.  If that means learning how to use NY Steinway hammers and lacquer, so be it.  If that means stabbing 100,000 holes in a new set of hard pressed Yamaha hammers, so be it.  It isn't my name on the fallboard, and I don't feel I have the right to choose the kind of sound that piano should have just because I prefer a different method.  It is the artist/buyer/owner who has the expectation based on the name on the fallboard, whether I like it or not.  To change the overall characteristic of the instrument to suit my preferences does injustice to both the buyer/owner/artist and the owner of the name on the fallboard.</span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Yes.  The NY Steinway hammer, properly lacquered, creates a different palate of tonal offerings from any other hammer.  That is NY Steinway's signature.  Other hammers can sound "nice" and "pretty" in a Steinway.  But that sound is missing something.  It isn't just about loud and soft or bright or mellow.  It is about the felty strength of the lioness gently carrying her cubs in her mouth to the graceful, mysterious stalking to the raucous, meaty, bloody gore of the lion's kill.  It is the romantic sensuality of estrogen and the chest beating insensitivity of testosterone.  One cannot describe with words the description of the actual sound, but you know when it is there and when it isn't.</span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>And most every performer I've worked with knows.  I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with artists regarding expectations from a Steinway that have contained the phrase "you know what I mean".  That is not a question.  It is a description of tone.</span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Viva la difference?  Yes.  If not an affordability issue, different tone and touch characteristics are why many choose other manufacturer's pianos.  And agreed, Steinway has a reputation (perhaps overexaggerated by promoters of its competitors) of manufacturing pianos with slightly different personalities.  And it isn't that the personalities vary so awfully much -- there is usually a strong resemblance between all of them.  But the differences don't occur because one installer in the factory chooses to use Tokiwa shanks and Wurzen hammers and another Renner shanks, with assist wippens and Abel hammers, and yet another Hamburg wippens, NY pre-84 shanks and Isaac hammers.  They occur simply because all of them are imperfect in slightly different ways, despite the increasingly reliable consistency of the stock factory parts.</span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>On Sep 19, 2007, at 11:40 AM, johnsond wrote:<br> <br> </span></font></p> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>  I'm not so sure I care for this new "process improvement" of pre-soaking, as it takes too much of the tone building process out of my control (in this last case, all of it) but we can deal with it if necessary.</span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>I'm not trying to be crass, but I really don't think it is up to us whether we care for it or not.  I see it as NY Steinway making an effort to protect their own identity and reputation from technician "error", as they have called it in reference to teflon bushings.  They have that right. They have earned it.  The pre-soaking takes our own personal preferences out of the equation to an extent and puts the hammer on a path to something that with little more work should produce the sound they want instruments with their name on them to produce.  If nothing else, it gets the note in the box that erases all doubt that Steinway hammers do indeed require lacquer.  Steinway is taking back control of the tone building process.  It is an attempt to make it easier for us to achieve that signature NY sound if we are only open minded to it.  </span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>It wasn't teflon bushings that created Steinway's reputation for clicky actions during those years.  It was technicians in the field who didn't know how to work with them.  But that was what allowed other manufacturers to make claims that Steinway was somehow inferior and stake claims to market share.  If not for their tradition rich reputation and Steinway's C&A artists working with world class performers using bona fide Steinway techniques during those times, it is very possible Steinway could have wound up on the chopping block over it.  Is that what we want?  Look, they're trying to help us out guys.  Let's at least listen to what they have to say without our eyes closed and our hands over our ears.</span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>If technicians have a legitimate complaint about the quality of their finished parts, that is one thing.  But what right do we have to complain about the quality of Steinway parts if it is our own ignorance of their processes, or infusion of our own individual preferences that is the cause of the dissatisfaction?  Steinway's technicians seem to use the parts quite well for the world's most demanding performers, in the factory, in the C&A department and in the restoration center (which, by the way, I was told almost always uses the same prehung hammers/shanks they send us with rare exception).  If I don't know how to make Steinway parts work on a Steinway, how is that Steinway's fault?  If I can't make them work (or just don't want to), what does that say to my client about my competence?  Blame Steinway?  Wanna see some eyebrows go up in a hurry around here?</span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>I think it is a step in the right direction for them.  For their brand.  For their identity.  For their future.</span></font></p> </div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>And ours.</span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>My thoughts,</span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Jeff</span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> </div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left: .5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> <div><span style='border-spacing: 0px 0px;text-align:auto;-khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto;orphans: 2;widows: 2;word-spacing:0px'> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=1 color=black face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:black'>Jeff Tanner, RPT</span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=1 color=black face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:black'>University of South Carolina</span></font></p> </div> <div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=1 color=black face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:black'> </span></font></p> </div> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=1 color=black face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:black'><br> <br> </span></font></p> </div> </span> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p> </div> </body> </html>