Hi Richard. Magic, magic. How would you explain that some old pianos with no more bearing, rusty strings, flat hammers and at least 5 wide open cracks in the board are sometimes able to cause true aesthetic emotions to some musicians ? Ok , they play in a certainly less predictable manner than a new Steinway D out of the box, but who said that this is the whole story ? Aren't there less predictable stories that appear to be truly thrilling ? But then, you restore the promizing instrument, put new everything (board, strings, action, etc.) and what do you get ? Well, just another nice piano sounding like any new piano, but the magic is gone. I heard many times this very common story (and not only from beginner techs). Some so called defaults appear to be of more aesthetical value than so called perfection. I am sure that time (setting, pounding, ageing) has good effects on some pianos (not all, obviously). I also hear sometimes that pianos get the sound that their usual player is seeking for. I can believe this, certainly when we admit that "sound" is better defined by some relative definition including the ears that are listening to it. Can't we imagine that the qualities (all the qualities, even those that nobody knows about yet) that make a soundboard sound good in a certain piano are evolving with the time ? Same for strings and for wool. Of course, mixing all the ingredients, there is (like in béarnaise) a time before and a time after the glory time. But why should this be 1 month ? or 5 years ? Why not 50 years ? why not 120 ? My definition of magic sould be understood here as the rules that command the world and that lie beyond the scope of our actual formalization of that world. I can see lots of magic in the world, also in the piano world. This is probably due to the poor level of formalization that I reached so far ;-) . Best regards, Stéphane Collin. Richard Brekne a écrit : > I find it quite suprising that the only person to cite a new or even > recent piano so far is myself. Everything else has beed 50 to 100 > years old. > > So... how do you guys account for the fact that all of you are > declaring your <<piano sound to die for>> as coming from such old wood ? > > Grin > > Cheers > RicB > _______________________________________________ > pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives > >
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