<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On Dec 7, 2006, at 7:13 PM, Kent Swafford wrote:</DIV><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">What of the soundboards that have forced the term "killer octave" into our vocabulary?</SPAN></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">How does one polish the "diamond in the rough" that looks more like a simple lump of coal?</SPAN></DIV><DIV>Kent</DIV></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE><BR></DIV><DIV>Obviously, board and any structure issues are a different story; much rarer, in my experience, than action issues.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>A lot of tonal issues that people might think are board-related are actually mechanics and tone regulation-related.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>If plucking strings in various sections of the piano produces the sound and resonance curve we desire, it's easy to tweak. Relatively. If the pluck test is bad, and the termination points are good, you've got a big problem. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I haven't seen a New York Steinway since the early '80's that was terrible all around---condemnable.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>The vast majority of the Steinway problems I've seen in my practice for the last 20 or so years have been front-end problems---action and damper. When the action is balanced, regulated and the piano is tuned and voiced properly, a magical transformation takes takes---the piano starts to sing. The client is blown away. We've done this dozens of times on modern Steinway grands. I'd say the ratio of egregious problems in modern Steinways is around 20:1, front end to back end. YMMV.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>David Andersen</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>