Steinway O Redesign

[Ron Nossaman]

>     This is very much the same effect as a singer properly sustaining a 
> note or a Mesa De voce style of singing where the note being sustained  
> intentionally starts at a lower volume & is then expanded dynamically & 
> then contracted. Only in the pianos case the duration of the Mesa devoce 
> is longer. It's a wonderful effect . 

It certainly is. I'm not sure the volume goes up after the attack, 
but a lot of other stuff sympathetically kicks in after a second or 
so when the soundboard doesn't waste what energy there is. It 
gets... richer, like expecting milk and getting a shake.


>   As we left he said I guess it's a good thing those -----------'s 
> dropped the piano otherwise this wouldn't have happened.
>    All in all It's a lot of fun.
>    Dale Erwin


Sunday, I finished up an emergency un-breaking on an S&S M. A moving 
and storage company had it in storage for the last three years, and 
on unwrapping it for mid-June delivery, discovered that someone 
(dumb one) had dumped it on it's top (when???), and had neglected to 
mention it. Broke the plate. I got a panic call May 19, went over 
and discussed their options, took the scale, tore the piano down, 
got the plate to the welder, made some scaling changes, and ordered 
bass strings. The welder, trying to save the signatures on the plate 
over the next two weeks, didn't heat it as thoroughly as he knew he 
should have, and chased stress cracks through two more heatings 
until he gave up and smoked the signatures. This after doing me the 
favor of leapfrogging his backlog on the job to try and accommodate 
the delivery date. I got the plate back last Monday, looking like a 
cinder. I'd loved to have done some needed modifications, but It 
wasn't being fixed - just un-broke. Spent two long days and half of 
a third filling, sanding, spraying, lettering, sweating, and wishing 
I was somewhere else. The piano was delivered to me Wednesday for 
stringing, and not a thing had been done to the case since I had 
seen it three weeks previous. When I tore it down, the touch up guy 
had already started, so I assumed he'd have it done when I was ready 
for it. Not so. I cleaned it up, CA'd the bridge pins, installed new 
agraffes, and started stringing. Finished Saturday night, and put it 
together and tuned it one final time Sunday. Yup, that's an M. 
Called this morning with the final price, and told them I'd trade 
the piano for a check as soon as they could get here. He'll get back 
to me... Yea. Maybe the next one I get in will be a real job. I'm 
curious how a mo-defiled M performs, but this one wasn't it.

Looking forward to KC to rest up for a couple of days. Might even 
get my hands clean by week's end.

Ron N