<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Re: Inadvertent pitch raise with SAT III</TITLE> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; = charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4134.600" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; = BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: = black"><B>From:</B> <A title=mwissner@earthlink.net = href="mailto:mwissner@earthlink.net">Mark Wisner</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A = title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> March 07, 2001 9:13 = PM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> RE: pianotech-digest = V2001 #309</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV> <DIV>"Todays piano manufacturers have, well simply lost perspective... = they</DIV> <DIV>continually explore the possibilities for making instruments more = and more</DIV> <DIV>explosive in sound"</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If the above is true, it's only because that's what the folks = buying pianos want.  Manufacturers respond to market conditions and  it's up to us as musicians and technicians to change = the market if we think it needs changing. </DIV> <DIV> <HR> </DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV dir=ltr>Mark, I'm not so sure this really is true. I'd say this = is more what the folks buying pianos have become conditioned to. I gone through = both the Japanese piano invasion and the Korean piano invasion and in both cases = the most attractive feature started out being the price. </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr>As time passed sales people naturally began to look for = ways to overcome the objections to the hard, linear sounds inherent in most of = these pianos and, true to form, began stressing that this kind of sound was = desirable. Power was good. More power was better. And if it hurts your ears, why = that's just the piano you need in your very own home. </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr>I've heard way to many salespeople trashing the sound of = a perfectly good piano in favor of the imported piano they were selling by = explaining that the softer, more dynamic sound of the = competition's piano was the result of poor quality control, or poor design, or poor manufacturing, or poor something or other.</DIV> <DIV dir=ltr> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr>It didn't help that America's most well known pianos = really were rather poorly built at the time, at least in finish detailing and = finishing. That they would still outlast the imported pianos by several generations = was a whole other issue.</DIV> <DIV dir=ltr> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr>Now we find the U.S. manufacturers improving their fit = and finish while trying to emulate this hard, linear sound instead of leading the = way back to musicality. Sad.</DIV> <DIV dir=ltr> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr>Del</DIV> <DIV dir=ltr> </DIV></BODY></HTML>