You've got questions? (was Piano Designers...)

[Ron Nossaman]

>List -
>
>Forgive the late flashback to the thread, but in addition to the "why"
>questions, I have a couple of "what" queries:

*No problem, some of us are behind the times too.


>Kimball at one point was bragging about its "Pipe Organ Sound Chamber"
>whenever you opened one to tune it.  I have never found the sound chamber, but
>it must be where they keep all the wild inharmonicity cooped up.  Anyone else
>know where they put it?

*Sure, it's right behind those faux "swell louvers" bracketing the music
rack on the front panel. You can't see it because it's an OPEN SPACE inside.
They put a name on a cubic nothing and used it as a marketing tool. What a
society, huh? This was probably the result of a chemically induced "fever
dream" by the same guy who named the Harm-i-Tone action. It could just as
easily have been Harm-a-Tone, or Harmonitone. Be grateful, it could have
been much worse.

>
>Similarly, Heppe upright pianos said right on the plate that they had three
>sound boards.  I only ever found one.  Where are the others?

*This one is a little touchier. I think maybe all pianos have at least three
soundboards. There's the one the designer thought he specified, the one the
factory people thought they installed, the one the dealer thought the
manufacturer warranted, the one the customer thought they bought, the one
the tech marvels at wondering how it got this far, the other one another
tech marvels at because it sounds so great after 450 years, the one the
rebuilder tries so hard to repair or duplicate with replacement (or not),
and the big gold cast iron one the customer points to when they are bragging
about the lack of cracks therein. Seems to me Heppe was holding out on us. %-) 

>
>For good measure, have any of you English majors ever tuned a piano with this
>cast into the plate?  "The Lindeman family have been building pianos for 85
>years."  Jim Harvey or Susan Kline, can you correct the grammar?
>
>Bill Maxim
>

*Talk to Bill Garlick some time. When he was working for Steinway he would
say things like: "This is what Steinway do.", rather than "This is what
Steinway does.", considering the company as a plurality of individuals,
rather than a conglomerative singular entity. It's like saying "This is what
Druids do", rather than "This is what Druids does". I'm not implying, in
this illustration, that Steinway is a religion, it's just that... well, I
mean, you know... all right, you got me. Steinway probably does qualify as a
religion but that's still my answer, and I'm sticking to it. 

 Ron