At 18:38 20/09/01 +1000, Overs Pianos wrote: >While JD added; > >>. . . . because there were some pretty good scales around even in the >>early 1900s > >Just wondering, which scales from around 1900 do you consider to be pretty >good? Years ago I kept a record of calculations for every string scale I worked with. This was sadly lost, so I now have only the record of every bass section, which only tells half the story. However, off the top of my head, Ibach and Lipp did not do too badly. >> . . . . just as every grand piano now produced uses an older and less >> well designed version of the Erard action than was available off the >> shelf in 1900 and many makers till recently used an even nastier version. > >Are you referring to the older Schwander style action with the longer >repetition spring attached with loop chord, as being the better designed >older action, Yes. The one actually made by Herrburger-Schwander in Paris, not the later Langer 1909 copy with all the useless adjustment screws. > and the wing spring thing as being the modern less well designed > version? Just wondering what particular designs you are referring to. Yes, and the Schwander B as the even nastier one. >Possibly so. Would you also concede that there may be worthy contemporary >ideas which remain to become mainstream? I don't think we should hold up >any age as one to be regarded with reverence over another. In any time >there will be good and ordinary ideas. There are thinkers of today who are >just as capable of conceiving new and worthwhile design improvements. Of course, and the big firms are not excluded. As a dealer I watched Kawai progress in a few years from producing a very stiff and boring KG series, through the GX series to the beginnings of the RX series (I think I was the only one ever to import an RX-A to the UK and it is a beautiful instrument.) I am no longer a piano dealer, but I am sure the latest RX pianos, not to speak of the Shigeru, must be quite impressive and look forward to seeing them at Frankfurt in 2002. As to holding up pre-1914 to reverence, there was a very rich soil in those days for your 'thinkers' to flourish in and a vast resource of skilled men working in an age dominated by mechanical contrivances. I'm sure worthwhile design improvements are possible in 2001 as well as some radical changes in basic components, but maybe there were good ideas around in 1960, in 1970 - I've not seen any evidence of it. JD
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