Galassini on Yamaha

[Avery Todd]

Roger,

   From my experiences here at the university, I'll have to agree with
what you say. I've already switched to rebushing with leather instead of
felt on our performance and piano major practice pianos.
   Our lease pianos are late getting changed out this year and I was told
to go ahead and tune, regulate, voice and do whatever was needed to keep
the students happy. Some of them assumed the pianos had already been
changed out and were complaining about the "terrible" condition of the new
ones. One had even started a petition to complain about them. Some others
had written a note to the Director of the School of Music. Once again, no
one had even bothered to check with me to see what the problem was until
*after* everything was hitting the fan.
   In doing this work, it was surprising to me to see the amount of wear
in just a little over one year. Hammers could have profitably been filed
and key bushings were already sloppy on several of them. That work I
didn't do because they'll be leaving very soon. But I was surprised at
the amount of wear. Of course, in rooms reserved for piano majors, I
figure one year of that use would be comparable to about 5 in a home with
a professional pianist.

Avery

>           12Yrs is old for a piano with this caliber of artist, practicing
>anywhere from 4 to 8hrs a day.  Due to key bushing wear, centre pin, and
>knuckle wear, there will be a limit to how tightly and consistently the
>instrument can be regulated and voiced.
>  This has nothing to do with the fact that it is a Yamaha, this level of
>performance, by this fine an ARTIST will push any piano to the limit. Also
>this quality of player will always demand excellence, and keep the tech on
>his toes.
>  At times we are suprised by the demands that true artist demand of us,
>but why?
>Well it's outside of our norm, and satisfying them can be intimidating,
>unless we take the time to really communicate, and learn the skills to
>satisfy them.
>  If Andre finds his ideal piano, I wonder how many years before he is
>dissatisfied again? Key bushings worn ppp becomes impossible, hammers
>reshaped and centre pins worn, touch weight drops below acceptable levels.
>Knuckles flatten out, let off becomes indeterminate. Strings become work
>hardened and sustain time goes down. And so the list goes on.
>  For this level of performer an action rebuild would be required every
>5yrs in a perfect world. Unfortunately this rarely happens.
>  He has been a Steinway, Baldwin and Yamaha artist, I think he is running
>out of piano companies to work with.
>Just some observations IMHO.
>Roger.
>Roger Jolly

___________________________
Avery Todd, RPT
Moores School of Music
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-4893
713-743-3226
atodd@uh.edu
http://www.music.uh.edu/