This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment List If all good piano owners were to put ther pianos back in ther cases = when they were finished practicing(Grin) I think you just might find as = many good sounding 100 year old pianos as violins. Dale Erwin ----- Original Message -----=20 From: JStan40@AOL.COM=20 To: pianotech@ptg.org=20 Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2001 5:08 PM Subject: Re: not a Steinway any more F arrell wrote:=20 > "Hmmm.. I wonder about this statement. I have heard pianos that=20 > definantly improved with time. Not your heavily used instruments=20 > that get just plane beat to smitherins... but Intruments that get=20 > used a good deal, nicely as it were... and significantly (me=20 > thinks anyways..) they all seemed to have a pretty optimal=20 > environment." In the short term, yes, many variables. But take 100=20 > hi-quality violins at age 100 years and 100 hi-quality pianos at=20 > age 100 years. Which group sounds/plays most like they did when=20 > new - or better. I think the violins win. No?=20 If thats true then we would have to ask ourselves why it is... and=20 what immediatly comes to my mind is whether a piano can have=20 anywhere near optimal climatic conditions combined with reasonably=20 good maintanance over such a long time. Where as a violin may very=20 easily have that kind of a life for so long a period.=20 Its all probably moot anyways. Who's going to provide those kind of=20 conditions for a piano over so many years to find out... ? Talk=20 about your time consuming experiment.=20 Still.. its interesting to think about.=20 - --=20 Richard Brekne=20 RPT, N.P.T.F.=20 Bergen, Norway=20 mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no=20 Terry, Richard and others who have responded to this thread,=20 I think it has been mentioned by one person that Stradivarius (and = others,=20 notably Amati, Guarneri, etc.) instruments are not usually found today = in=20 their original form......longer necks, increased angle of the neck, = longer=20 fingerboards, higher bridges, etc., to conform to the changes in taste = of the=20 violin sound in the time since the late 16th c. A few museums have = original=20 instruments, but they haven't been played regularly, either. So are = they=20 still Strads (or others)? Everyone seems to agree that they are, at = least=20 the marketplace tends to value them regardless of the later alterations=20 nearly universally made.=20 One other thing is worth pointing out, though perhaps it is obvious = enough=20 that it didn't NEED pointing out.............and that is that the = soundboard=20 on a piano is a stressed member of the entire structure. By contrast, = the=20 top and back of the violin has its shape by virtue of it having been = carved=20 out of a much larger block of wood. The stress placed on it by the = string=20 tension and bridge/soundpost/bass bar transducer arrangement is much = less=20 than that of a piano soundboard (obviously), and having its shape = already=20 formed lends itself to....well....self-preservation (barring fire or = accident=20 sufficient to prevent repair).=20 Just HAD to throw this into the mix.....sorry!=20 Stan Ryberg=20 Barrington IL=20 mailto:jstan40@aol.com=20 ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/a9/25/e7/79/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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