More on Astin-Weight

[Sy Zabrocki]

List from Sy Zabrocki:
>From 1973 to 1976 I sold sold some Astin-Weight (AW) pianos. During that
time I became acquainted with Ed Astin and Don Weight. Ed Astin came from
England and settled in Salt Lake because the climate there was best for
making pianos. This is stated in an old AW brochure. He teamed up with Don
Weight of Salt Lake City. 

They did a lot of experimenting with some radical ideas. I actually have
their brochure showing a strung back with the soundboard ribs on the inside
of the soundboard. It looks weird. I presume the SB on the back was
perfectly smooth.  The bridges are notched in over the ribs. AW pianos have
a massive plate with no back posts and an unusally small frame. The
soundboard reaches almost to the top of the piano. There is actually a
space at the top between the pin block and the soundboard. They had
Pratt-Read actions early on but now use Langer actions. I never did tune
one of their 50" uprights but do know they had a big sound. 

About 15 years ago Astin and Weight had some kind of disagreement and Astin
left. Then a strange situation occurred where Astin's son teamed up with
Weight and so it was still Astin-Weight. I don't know all the latest about
them but I still visit with Don Weight at the annual NAMM Show. After they
separated Ed tried to start another factory. He stopped here once and gave
me a picture of his new model. As I remember he had a sort of second
soundboard on the back with a hole in it like on a guitar. This second
venture apparently failed. Don't what happened to Ed.

They experimented with several kinds of soundboards. Some were mahogany
laminated, spruce lam., solid spruce, birch or whatever. Back on the early
70's I'd take my young family on a fun trip to Salt Lake from Billings, MT.
Then I'd 
rent a U-Haul trailer and haul AW pianos back three at a time. My database
tells
me we sold 19 consoles. I always requested a solid spruce."Why, they'd say,
you can't tell the difference". Once they tricked me. They had four pianos
against wall with different soundboards and asked me select the solid
spruce. I failed the test. 

Would you believe back in those the days the dealer cost was about $695.
Now it is about $3500. Someone on this list said they sell a lot overseas.
I did not know this. They seemed to favor an oiled finish. I fact the
Ancott book still shows some models with only an oiled finish. 

These pianos were not troublesome, at least for us. Most did have a
brilliant sound but very good volume. The longest string was 45" which was
more than most 41" pianos. I still see their pianos at the NAMM Show and
they seem to be exactly the same. They actually had a 37" model in about
1959 but then settled on the 41 inch. I would kid them,"why 41", why not 43
inches". Then your piano would be sensational. In 1975 Charles Walters
introduced his 43" scale with a 48" string. I then started selling Walters.

This old Astin-Weight brochure does not have a date on it but they state
the production got under way about 1959. One pictures shows Don Weight at a
drill press drilling holes in a plate. Apparently they both got down in the
saw dust in the early days. 

So why didn't this company make it big. Maybe they were too radical. I
remember my own doubt about no back posts. You had to swim up stream to
sell them. You had to explain this feature so thoroughly and the
competition was always perpetuating the doubt. 

It's already been mentioned this week on this list that nonsense stated on
the sales floor to some degree rules the piano industry. A 24-four-old
salesman can't snow us when selling computers but he sure can snow the
public when selling pianos. Of course that's because the public buys a
piano only once and usually knows nothing. Then we have to deal with
tradition, the frozen in time syndrone. (So you better not put the ribs on
the inside of the soundboard). 

I'm rambling--better quit clickin. 

Sy Zabrocki