impedance and empericism -- longer

[Richard Moody]

>After all, the design of the piano was perfected by the early
> 1930s so there is really no need to continue trying to develop it any
> further.  Perfection cannot be improved on, can it?
>
> Del
The art of perfection is knowing when to quit.
Whether you meant it tongue in cheek, I for one believe in the culmination
of piano making in the 1930's.   I have seen a 1930's M in preserved
condition that is PERFECT. Yes the designs had been worked out, and the
nusances of attaching the sb to case and bridge to sb and still acheiving
proper bearing that "sounded the best" I think they were near "perfection".
The problem is those technicians have long since passed before us, and
unless you learned from someone who had learned from them, whatever they
didn't write down, is lost and must be rediscovered again. Perhaps it exists
in the factories that still exist today that existed in the 30's.   But no
evidence so far.
    And one more angle of perfection, in 1919 the European makers were
moaning that the best pianos could no longer be made because all of the
prized spruce forrests had been cut down to make war planes.    Have they
made better violins since Amatti and Stradivarious? I think the reality is
that try as they may they (piano makers) with all of the sofisticated
technology, machines and factories still can't do better than 1930's ....
......OK  some European makers would argue that, but where do you see
Grotrian, Bluthner, Beckstein, Hamburg Steinway in the same or nearby
showrooms?  ---ric