<HTML>In a message dated 11/17/01 12:36:08 AM !!!First Boot!!!, mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Not complaining so much, but my point was that by doing something different, as in this case, when one talks about keyboard crown, one talks about all the others - and then there is Steinway. I think it is a marketing ploy to simple set Steinway apart from all the others at any level on conversation. Again, not saying anything negative about Steinway, but rather just offering an observation. Terry Farrell   </BLOCKQUOTE> Terry I don't understand how having a crowned keybed, or any other ideas that Steinway has come up with over the years that are different from other makers, could be considered marketing "ploys." A middle pedal that doesn't do anything is a marketing ploy. A grand style lid on a vertical is a marketing ploy. But if a crowed keybed, a tubular steel action frame, and a monkey are all marketing ploys, then I guess Steinway has done a pretty good job. But is a slow fall fallboard a marketing ploy of Yamaha? Is a tension resonator a marketing ploy of Mason & Hamlin? In other words, at what point are innovations that make a piano better a marketing ploy, as opposed to a better way to make a piano? Wim </HTML>