At 08:51 20/09/01 -0700, Delwin D Fandrich wrote: >>I agree. The B scale is extraordinary and yet of all models it is the B >>that gets musicians raving. > >I agree it get musicians raving...it is the one scale we hear the most >complaints about! Hm. Interesting. I'm not primarily a tuner and not much in the great musical swing either, so I'll ask around. Are most of these complaints about American-made Steinways or would you make no distinction on this question? >...Still, the piano continues to sell...why? I can only speculate. [....] >It is certainly one of the most attractive pianos of its size ever built >(it has a Visual Bulk Factor of just 1.1) [....] I'd say that most of its >success is attributable to its wonderful appearance and its successful >marketing. Precisely what sold the Bechstein B 6'8" in its day! What is Visual Bulk Factor? If it's what I'm guessing, isn't the Steinway Model A even lower? >>But the question is, will C88 at 50 mm. and 140 lb. sound any worse or >>noticeably weaker or be significantly more liable to pitch alteration? >>Put another way, do tuners have problems with the top treble of Steinway >>Model Bs in concert halls? > >Yes. How else do you explain the massive amounts of lacquer and other >herculean attempts to harden and 'brighten'.... OK, you've half persuaded me, though the story of Steinway's hammers in the past 20 years is a very sad one. I use only Japanese hammers now. >Tuning stability is a whole other issue, having less to do with the scaling >and more to do with the structural design and the soundboard/rib design. I was thinking of Wolfenden's assertion that below a certain relative tension strings do become susceptible to temperature variations but that above a certain percentage strain this is virtually negligible -- which I have no reason to doubt. I must admit that the _only_ reason I advocate the shorter extreme treble is the doubtful quality of modern wire, and I increase the tension going down as soon as possible, not to influence the whole scale as you say it does in the B. Probably past experience with fluctuating wire quality has made me cautious. JD
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