Was Flat Fact/ poor scaling

[Overs Pianos]

>At 11:05 AM -0600 27/3/05, Kent Swafford wrote:
>
>I don't mind Lesters. Lots of Betsy Ross spinets in this part of the 
>world. I'd tune a Lester instead of a GA-1 any day of the week. 
>Really. (How's that for an insult to the GA-1?)
>
>Kent

Hi Kent and all,

I'm not familiar with the Betsy Ross over here in Aus.

Some have tried to justify the GA-1's poor performance in terms of 
price point. I don't agree that pianos designed for entry level need 
to be poorly designed as a means of cost cutting.

Some on this list have been bashing away for years about poor scale 
design. Very often such postings receive protest posts from people 
who, I suspect, haven't really thought the problem through. The GA-1 
(an outstanding example of poor scale design) clearly demonstrates 
that Yamaha's overall policy is for building status quo smaller 
instruments, rather than innovative and well designed entry level 
pianos.

The only justification I can think of for putting the break of a 
short piano at the usual A#26/B27 is visual conformity. While the 
piano buying fraternity might find the visual layout of a G#34/G35 
break to be a little out of the ordinary, a well-laid-out sound board 
area, with a log string-scale and appropriate straight-side cut-off, 
based around this crossover would run rings around the A#26/B27 'sawn 
off' brigade.

The process of designing a new work-able short scale takes 
approximately one hour. So the argument of 'compromised design for 
price' of these new PSOs just doesn't wash.

The KG1 Kawai, and the later RX version, with a higher break (from 
memory D30/D#31) than the 'equivalent' Yamaha offerings are 
significantly more musical instruments, to which most of the credit 
must go to the relatively superior scale design. If Kawai were to 
take their courage in both hands and go even further up with their 
break on the RX1, further improvement again would be the result.

I just can't understand this obsession in our industry with sticking 
to 'traditional' scales. After all, most of us have gone beyond using 
the horse and buggy for everyday transport.

Ron O.

-- 
OVERS PIANOS - SYDNEY
    Grand Piano Manufacturers
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Web http://overspianos.com.au
mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au
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