<HTML><BODY> <div><br> Ric,</div> <div style="CLEAR: both"> </div> <div style="CLEAR: both">Why is Steinway "forced" to rely on dealerships to perform adequate prep work?  There are many pianos that are in a far better state of preparation coming from their respective factories.  I'd name a few, but it's a pretty long list.  </div> <div style="CLEAR: both"> </div> <div style="CLEAR: both">Steinway isn't forced to do anything.  Like other businesses--and individuals, of course--they make their choices.  They choose to send unfinished products to the dealers, and many of them escape into the field as such for many reasons.  If the dealers aren't living up to their end of whatever bargain they have, other arrangements with independent techs should be worked out, as you've suggested.</div> <div style="CLEAR: both"> </div> <div style="CLEAR: both">It would seem to me that S and S would be playing it safer if the standards of what is coming out of the facotry was raised.</div> <div style="CLEAR: both"> </div> <div style="CLEAR: both">Regards,</div> <div style="CLEAR: both"> </div> <div style="CLEAR: both">Dave Stahl</div> <div style="CLEAR: both"> </div> <div style="CLEAR: both"><br>  <br> -----Original Message-----<br> From: ricb@pianostemmer.no<br> To: pianotech@ptg.org<br> Sent: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 2:48 AM<br> Subject: Steinways / David Andersen<br> <br> Since Steinway actually is in a situation where they (at least for the present) are forced to rely on dealerships to perform adequate prep work... it may very well be in their interests to establish contact with a pool of non-aligned (and non-hostile) techs to work as a kind of control mechanism. Both to improve the general quality of finished instruments, improve what apparently is vulnerability in customer relations, and to identify dealerships that do not live up to their part of the <<bargain>> implied in the present manufacturer / dealer relationship. <br>  <br> Cheers <br> RicB <br>  <br>  <br>   On Dec 7, 2006, at 7:13 PM, Kent Swafford wrote: <br>   > What of the soundboards that have forced the term "killer octave"   > into our vocabulary? <br>   > How does one polish the "diamond in the rough" that looks more like   > a simple lump of coal? <br>   > Kent <br>  <br>   Obviously, board and any structure issues are a different story; much   rarer, in my experience, than action issues. <br>  <br>   A lot of tonal issues that people might think are board-related are   actually mechanics and tone regulation-related. <br>  <br>   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. <br>  <br>   I haven't seen a New York Steinway since the early '80's that was   terrible all around---condemnable. <br>  <br>   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. <br>  <br>   David Andersen <br>  <br> </div>  <div class="AOLPromoFooter"> <hr style="margin-top:10px;" /> <a href="http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/1615326657x4311227241x4298082137/aol?redir=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eaol%2Ecom%2Fnewaol" target="_blank"><b>Check out the new AOL</b></a>. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.<br /> </div> </BODY></HTML>