Piano Design Question

[V T]

Hello Sarah, List,

Your post brings us to one of the essential points of
running a manufacturing business.  Here is my
viewpoint:

The spinet and the concert grand are both referred to
as "piano"; clearly, we are using the same word for
two products that are worlds apart.  The spinet market
is huge.  The concert grand market is small.  If a
business owner can decide which market to serve, it's
easier to define the appropriate strategy regarding
commercial success.  The problem often arises when a
company corners itself, and has to cover the largest
possible market (including the extreme ends) because
their business is based on significant manufacturing
volume requirements.  Worse yet, marketing my decide
that the spinet line might sell "much better" if only
there were also a 9 foot grand with the same name on
the fall board.

I think that a modern flat strung grand would be worth
looking into.  I can only speculate, but my thinking
is that the main advantage of the overstrung layout
has to do with a more central placement (away from the
rim) of the bottom notes on the bass bridge.  The
other way to give the soundboard mobility in the low
bass is to float it, and that may (or may not) have
its own problems.  Most pianos have a slight angle
between the spine and the keyboard and I have to think
that the technical benefit of that also has to do with
the same problem - moving the bottom of the bass
bridge a little further away from the rim.

Now, if one came up with a rim shape that is
aesthetically pleasing to our traditional eyes, and
allows for ample room between the bass bridge and the
rim, the flat strung idea may be quite workable.

Part two of the problem is marketing.  It's one thing
to market an unusual instrument design to the spinet
buyers, and another to sell such a thing for $200000. 
There is a significant number of people who have a lot
of money and will gladly spend it as long as they
acquire some bragging rights with the purchase.  So,
if a brave soul should decide to build the best piano
regardless of what is traditional, with some top notch
marketing mystique, they could pull off a low
volume/high price boutique strategy.

We all know that it is possible for a charismatic
business owner to break into the top end of the market
in a few years - Fazioli has demonstrated that. 
Unfortunately, the qualities that make a great
engineer are rarely the ones that make a great
marketer.

 I do ask myself why someone would go through the
significant trouble of designing a much more
complicated (overstrung) piano if they didn't feel
constrained in some way by the flat strung design. 
Something was on Mr. Steinway's mind, but we may never
know for sure what exactly it was.  Stephen's post
regarding wire thickness is an example of what may
very well have been at work.

Vladan

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com