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

[Jon Page]

Ron,
You get a Gold Star for this one.

Thanks,
Jon Page


At 12:19 PM 6/24/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
>>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 
>
>