Hamamatsu Museum of Instruments

[Richard Brekne]

The two Rons exchanged...

>
>> I suppose much reasoning will depend on a company's motive for 
>> manufacturing pianos in the first place. Is the primary goal the 
>> creation of a first rate piano, or is it that of a marketing company 
>> who finds itself compelled to manufacture pianos to satisfy the 
>> demand created by the brochures and spin? This can be an interesting 
>> question.
>
>
> This is a VERY interesting question, and one that will be by "virtue" 
> of not being able to get real answers from manufacturers, forever 
> speculative. We can only extrapolate from what we think we can see in 
> the product, against what we think we know at the moment. Hopefully, 
> what we think we know will expand with time and experience, making our 
> speculative evaluations of what we see in existing pianos closer to 
> what the designer and manufacturer intended to produce with that feature.
>
> Ron N
>

I quite agree that this kind of question is interesting. I used to get 
into a similar discussion about music in general with my older brother.  
It was his contention that all music was commercial oriented, and that 
the real point, the real motivation for composing, playing, etc. all 
music was primarilly money.  I dissagreed quite a bit, and maintained 
that one could usually hear just by the character of the music whether 
the motivation behind it was commercial, or something more on the 
idealistic side of existance. Of course.... in the real world one does 
actually need to make a living of some sort and by some means... so the 
<<answers>> to such kinds of questions are never either/or... black and 
white..  one extreme or the other.  Its nearly always some degree of  
balancing the one against the other. The same can be said of grand 
pianos I would suppose. 

In the case of the manufacturer in question above, I see no reason to 
doubt in any sense their committment to making the finest instrument 
they believe they can. That doesnt mean they dont have their realities 
to live with mind you.  But with the parameters of what "surviving in a 
buisness world" allows them they have consistantly provided a quality 
product in quantities that allow them to remain viable in the piano 
making game for a very very long time.  There are some pretty heavy 
conflicting interests wrapped up in all that, and many of those are 
imposed upon the manufacturer regardless of their wants.

In the end, you find yourself in as much a philosophical discussion as 
anything else.

When it comes to the point about a given  manufacturer revealing the 
reasonings behind each and all.... any for that matter, design issue.... 
well I dont really know about others, but given the world around me I 
see no real surprise in any company keeping quite about most such 
things.  Seems like thats what most manufacturers are doing with most of 
what they do anyways.  So that bit I just let lie.

Cheers

RicB