<html> <body> Del, I'm rather curious about the famed "Lothar Schell" pianos.  I understand that there are some good innovations in his uprights but that the execution is a little wanting, more so in the grands.  Is there more to beware of? Andrew At 08:13 AM 4/24/2004 -0800, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>  <dl> <dd>-----Original Message----- <dd>From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [<a href="mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org" eudora="autourl">mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org</a>]On Behalf Of Farrell <dd>Sent: April 24, 2004 2:02 AM <dd>To: pianotech@ptg.org <dd>Subject: Wyman Microgrand - YUK! <dd>I tuned a Wyman Microgrand the other day. The piano is about a year old. Is this a Chinese or Indonesian product? Where on earth did this thing come from? <dd>  <dd>A couple interesting features: A 5-ply laminated soundboard and a 5-ply laminated bridge cap in the high treble. The soundboard had micro-thin exterior veneers of some spruce-looking material (contact paper?) and the interior three ply clearly appeared to be some type of hardwood - poplar? birch? selectus garbagatum? <dd>  <dd>Now the bridge cap - that thing really rocked me. The long bridge was a solid piece of some kind of hardwood and the manufacturer actually notched out an 8 mm or so thick chunk off the top of this fine bridge to insert the laminated cap. Clearly, this was done on-purpose. Presumably there was a reason to do this. What was that reason? Because they have a no-compromise approach to piano building? Because the bridge otherwise sounded sooooo bad - the laminated cap was an afterthought fix attempt? Because they monitor this list? I don't know what the cap was made of. It was not maple or beech. Could it have been ironwood (I don't think so)? I hope it was not the same material the soundboard was made of - it did look similar and the laminations were about the same thickness. <dd>  <dd>Yeah, but how did it sound? Much like an uninspired microgrand. Small. Constrained. Short sustain. Lots of false stuff up in the high treble. <dd>  <dd>Oh, and did I mention the tuning pins? "CRACK!"  Many of them did the jumpy thing. And all of them flagpoled enough to make a Steinway vertical seem like Steinway must use half-inch diameter hardened tuning pins. If you wanted to raise or lower the pitch a half-cent, you would have to go 20 cents up or down to get any movement. During the pitch raise, I had to go 50 cents sharp to get the pitch where I wanted it after removing hammer from pin. And that's the ones that were not jumpy! YIKES! <dd>  <dd>Anyway, that's all I gots to say 'bout that. <dd>  <dd>Terry Farrell </dl>  So, what's your problem here, Terry? You're not used to working with pianos of this fine and famed quality?   Del   PS. It's made in Beijing. By the same folks (Beijing Xing Hai) that bring you the famed Lothar Schell grand pianos. Along with numerous other Heritage Grand Pianos. I wonder if they have figured out what action bedding screws are for yet?</blockquote></body> </html>