<HTML><HEAD> <META charset=US-ASCII http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; cha= rset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2600.0" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fffff= f">Andre, Thanks for your response.  I really meant that I just group&n= bsp;piano hammers in two groups, needle down or juice up and i= n no way meant to put words in your mouth.  I know there are pretty&nbs= p;distinct differences between the three in their materials and sound but I = should have made my statement more clear in that I expect German or Asian ha= mmers to be harder and I expect American Steinway hammers to be much softer = and needing some lacquer to function.  I don't know if you see man= y of the smaller American Steinway, Ms and Ls over there but they seem to be= the ones that come from the factory needing the most attention.  Most = of the larger pianos are coming in with more power but in recent months I ha= ve hung German produced hammers on two very nice B's that were less than 6 m= onths old. The buyers just like the sound better and both had already been j= uiced to the extinction of the power. I have on occasion juiced hammers that= were made in Asia, but only very sparingly on most German brands because th= ey already have some in them to begin with. The Steinway pianos have already= had some lacquer in the factory and some don't need any more.= But when you start with a new set you have to really do some pretty radical= manipulation. Part of the problem here in the US is that we have a pre= tty unsophisticated sense of tonal aesthetic.  Too many Americans have = been bombarded with such bad piano sound that many do not really have a sens= e of what good tone is.  For so many years we have had such badly regul= ated, poorly voiced American pianos of several brands that almost anything t= hat is even to the touch and evenly voiced is regarded as wonderful. Th= e escalation of BRIGHT by the low end Asian manufacturers has obliterat= ed any sense of tone.  Just a couple of weeks ago I was asked by a deal= er to do some voicing to a Chinese piano because it was not BRIGHT enou= gh. In a voicing sense of course the problem was not bright but a total= lack of volume and decay. Many pianists here complain about pianos being no= t bright enough when the problem is not one of timbre but of substance.&nbsp= ;Not that I want you to suffer, Andre but I'll bet that faced with a voicing= project on a Kimball La Petite you would be reduced to tears.  A perfe= ct example is the ongoing debate among pianists who believe that the Steinwa= y concert grands that are used in New York and as station pianos around the = country are manufactured in a completely different way with better materials= and different soundboards, actions, hammers, etc.  When you try to tel= l them that the only difference is that they have been voiced and regulated = they are incredulous.  Steinway has long maintained that there is no di= fference but many pianists, salespeople and dealers alike just do = not believe them.  I can tell you that they are the one and the same in= strument. Sure they pick the better of the production to be C&A pianos.&= nbsp; Every company would want their best foot forward.  But the realit= y is that many beautiful Steinway pianos are languishing at the dealer level= unpurchased because the dealer won't put 7-10 hours into them.  Rant f= or today. TP</BODY></HTML>