<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" = http-equiv=Content-Type> <META content="MSHTML 5.00.3105.105" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT size=2>I remember many years ago I had got my father, who = plays professionally, a Steinway O. He loved it and changed the way he played. = Shortly thereafter I moved away, far way, I went back home to found = out he that traded the Steinway O in for an Astin Weight Concert upright.  = I found out later it was for space reasons and nothing against the piano. Also = he was the victim of an unscrupulous piano salesman...but that's for another = story, another day.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>At any rate, as John F. mentioned it is a huge = sound  but  with tremendous amts. of extra noise and falseness. As many = times as I had tuned it I could never be satisfied with the result.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Also there was another peculiar problem.  = This  piano had a hammer line had a radical change from high tenor = to  low tenor, something like 3/8" of inch. Left of the strut was one = measurement, right of the strut it was around 3/8" less.  The problem was that ( at = the change point) the tone definitely sounded as though the hammers  were not = hitting the correct strike point. It had the empty, hallow characteristic of a = hammer missing the strike point.  I tried elongating that section, I tried = changing the hammer angle all to no avail. I then called Astin Weight = and complained to Ray Astin, one of the owners, and he verified that the = numbers I had given him were  (in deed) correct.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Any others experience this problem?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Have any noticed Astin Weights  with extremely = deep key dip (1/2")? Love to hear other remarks.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Tom Servinsky</FONT></DIV> <DIV><STRONG>From:</STRONG> <A href="mailto:jformsma@dixie-net.com" title=jformsma@dixie-net.com>John M. Formsma</A> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: = 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A = href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org" title=pianotech@ptg.org>pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, June 13, 2002 = 12:13 AM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> RE: Astin-Weight</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=250043403-13062002><FONT face=Arial size=2>This = is a little off the original topic, but it pertains to Astin-Weight pianos. I = tuned one of the uprights (I think they called it a "Concert Grand = Upright"--something like that.) just recently, and it was the first one I had tuned aurally.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=250043403-13062002><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=250043403-13062002><FONT face=Arial size=2>It = seemed to have some weird scaling or something different going on with the partials. = I could get the octaves sounding fine, but the double octaves and = octave-fifths sounded "off" when single octaves were clearly in tune. After futzing = with the octave widths, it became evident that the best thing to do was simply = focus on the octaves and not worry about the rest. This I = did.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=250043403-13062002><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=250043403-13062002><FONT face=Arial = size=2>There was a lot of falseness throughout--not enough to cause major troubles--but it was = as if the extra "noise" was there by design. Almost like it was designed that = way, a different tone than any other piano I've encountered before.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=250043403-13062002><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=250043403-13062002><FONT face=Arial = size=2>Regretfully, I did not have enough time to examine the piano as I wanted. I did notice = there were no back posts, and the bridges were quite tall with holes bored = through in various places.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=250043403-13062002><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=250043403-13062002><FONT face=Arial size=2>The = overall sound was interesting, like the designers went for the biggest sound = possible, even if it meant adding extra sound via falseness. You could tell the = various notes were in tune, but there was extra "stuff" going on also.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=250043403-13062002><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=250043403-13062002><FONT face=Arial size=2>I'd = enjoy hearing the perspectives of others who have serviced the large Astin-Weight uprights.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=250043403-13062002><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=250043403-13062002><FONT face=Arial size=2>John = M. Formsma<BR>Blue Mountain, MS </FONT></DIV></SPAN> <DIV><SPAN class=250043403-13062002><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=250043403-13062002><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>