<HTML>In a message dated 5/20/01 10:59:46 AM Central Daylight Time, joegarrett@earthlink.net (Joseph Garrett) writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Initially, when I first bumped into the problem, with the first GH1, I was told, by Yamaha, that the "G" stands for grand and the "H" stands for home. The original design was INTENDED for those buyers who want a grand in their home and don't play! </BLOCKQUOTE> Unfortunately, too many manufacturers built pianos for this reason.  Around here and also in other cities I've been to, the GH1 is the piano found in the big hotels (like the ones that hold the Conventions and Regional Seminars).   To the people buying the piano, it looks (and probably sounds) the same as the much more expensive models.  They buy it for the classy looks and the "sweet noise" that comes from the piano tinkling along with the white noise from the water fountain in the lobby. Having to have the tuner come is about as welcome as having to have the rat exterminator come.  That banging disturbs the guests!  Now, try to talk to the Food & Beverage Manager (the only one who orders and schedules this kind of service from an office in the basement which has no windows) about cleaning and other maintenance requirements.  Forget it!  He's never heard of anyone doing those things and as far as he's concerned, the piano sounds just fine the way it is. On the other hand, I've known at least a couple of these pianos that really did sound good and were played by really good pianist-entertainers who knew what to ask that manager for.  I have one piano teacher customer who has one for which I converted the 6 lowest tenor unisons to wound strings.  There was a kit for that supplied by Yamaha.  One of my 4 times per year customers has one that was built with the wound strings in the low tenor.  It's the easiest job I have to do in my entire clientele.  The piano has a full Humidity Control System.  It barely takes me 30 minutes to tune it. Scale design to me is a fascinating subject.  There are so many pianos which so obviously could have a better design, some of which are still being made the same old way, namely the *Stein* way, model L.  I wonder why I never see anyone talking about it.  To me, the tone and stability problem is almost as bad as with the Yamaha GH1. There were other "grand" pianos built mainly to sit in front of the picture window so that the neighbors could see that the house has the a "baby grand" piano.  The Kimball La Petite is a good example.  I've long defended Kimball against those who have condemned the company wholesale but the La Petite is hard to defend.  The Baldwin B and C series are also in this category:  an embarrassment to the industry and may ultimately be a major contribution to the company's demise. Another instrument in this category comes to mind, one which I have always seen and heard condemned as the very worst:  The Brambach.  Conrad H. once wrote about how badly one had been rebuilt including all of the gory details.  I didn't want to read or hear about that.  When I've defended service of some of the more common pianos as the way most piano technicians make their living, I've been offered some Brambachs to take on. Then, last week, I was called to the Governor's Mansion where I have serviced the Steinway M in the parlor for nearly 15 years.  It was not however, to tune it but a piano upstairs which belongs to the new Governor's wife.  (Our 4th term Governor, Tommy Thompson, known as the powerful Conservative who virtually dismantled the Welfare System and "ended Welfare as we know it" was appointed by George W. Bush to do the same on a national scale as Secretary of Health and Human Services.  He moved to Washington and the Lieutenant Governor, Scott Mc Callum assumed the Governorship). I was escorted up to a small studio upstairs with a nice looking, small ebony grand in it.  I opened it up and found a meticulously rebuilt and refinished Brambach: clean, perfectly aligned and regulated.  It was only a few cents flat and also to my surprise, the temperament was a very good example of ET, not the usual Reverse Well substitution for ET that I have come to expect. It tuned just fine.  I raised the pitch slightly to 440 and converted the temperament and octave system to my own EBVT.  Now, it still is nothing more than it ever was, a "furniture" piano but I noted one thing about the "poor" scale design that I have noticed in many other makes that can happen when tuning with either an HT or my EBVT: you really can get more sweet than sour out of it if you know what you're doing. Before tuning, I listened to a broad C Major chord in the given ET.  UGH!  It surely didn't sound like what I have become accustomed to C Major as sounding.  Then I tried Db Major: it sounded *equally* bad, as I would have expected.  After finishing the tuning, I again tried the two chords.  The C Major was much improved, as expected but to my surprise, the Db major still sounded *less harsh* than it did in ET and much "cleaner". I can't go around and rescale every piano which I think could be improved (and that would be most of them) but I can use what I know about tuning and voicing to make the ones that I am asked to service and from which I earn my living to create a pleasing sound that will satisfy the best of musicians.   Mrs. Mc Callum was delighted with the sound of her piano (and no, I did not *explain* anything to her) and I got to meet the new Governor which was a thrill for me since I had never seen the past Governor in person, only on TV or in the papers. "Poor scales" are only a *problem* if you see them as such. Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin</HTML>