<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <html><head><style type="text/css"></style><title>Re: Query/Mark Allen Piano</title></head><body> <div>Hi all,</div> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite>>He left Portland and--rumor at the time had it--went to Sydney, Australia to<br> >build a piano for the Sydney Opera Hall. I've no idea as to the veracity of<br> >the rumors. Perhaps Ron Overs would know.<br> ><br> >Del<br> ><br> Is it possible he took up a new identity as ..... Ron Overs?  Have you ever seen<br> the two of them together?<br> </blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>Phil F</blockquote> <div><br></div> <div>Now Phil, the answer to the first question is NO.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Yes, I have Phil, and there are a few differences I hope.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Mark Allen did come to Australia with a few piano plates and assorted bits and pieces, but he 'settled' in Melbourne. Wayne Stuart, who was the head teacher in piano technology at the Preston TAFE<font color="#0000FF"> (in Melbourne)</font> at the time, had some part in bringing Allen to Aus'. I have always wondered why Stuart encouraged him here - was he interested in finding out about Allen's tone building philosophy? I do know that Wayne was already planning his own future as a manufacturer.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Around 1985 there had been a lot of press about Allen and his 'world beating' piano. However, as many of you would know, Mark was no 'shrinking violet' and his healthy ego probably lead him to believe his piano was much more than it was. While he had quite a number of theories about how the modern piano should evolve<font color="#0000FF"> (some of which seemed plausable to me at the time)</font> he had one serious impediment - poor workmanship. Even if he was equipped with the best understanding of tone building on the planet<font color="#0000FF"> (which is unlikely)</font>, nothing worthwhile would result while it was accompanied by such shoddy workmanship.</div> <div><br></div> <div>An Australian piano technicians convention was held in Melbourne<font color="#0000FF"> (it was the year of my first convention lecture)</font> not long after Allen's arrival in Melbourne. It was an interesting convention for me, since I was already thinking of the possibility of building my own pianos eventually. But when I saw and heard the Mark Allen piano it was a bit of a shock, the workmanship was very ordinary indeed (ditto for the tone). He had drilled many holes through the core wood to lighten the hammers, and he was rabbiting on about some magic epoxy that was going to transform the tone of the instrument. Numerous bridge pin holes had been drilled in the wrong place, plugged poorly and then re-drilled. Overall, it was quite disappointing. During the convention he gave a talk on his tone building philosophy, but he seemed to be a bit short on sensible facts and long on superstition. For those of you who knew him, he didn't get through it without mentioning that " . . a good sounding piano tone should sound like the singing voice of Kathleen Ferrier".</div> <div><br></div> <div>As a postscript, Mark Allen and his piano did have one lasting effect on me. He was using iron plates for his pianos which were not his own. A younger technician I know told me how he was instructed to grind the original name off the plates, when he worked briefly for Allen. Several technicians were critical of him for using plates from another manufacturer. The bad press Mark got about the plates lead me to acknowledge our use of non original parts on our first pianos by naming them Overs-Steinbach (Samick pianos sell in Australia under the name Alex-Steinbach). Only two more of these 225s will be built. While I am pleased with the performance of our current 225s, I can't wait to slightly lengthen the piano and shorten the name. I'm currently designing three new grand models as a matching all-Australian-made threesome. For those who would like a preview of the case outer shapes go to;</div> <div><br></div> <div>http://overspianos.com.au/cases.html</div> <div><br></div> <div>Regards,</div> <div>Ron O.</div> <div><br></div> <div>-- <br>            <span ></span>      OVERS PIANOS<br>        Grand Piano Manufacturers<br> _____________________________<br> <br> Web:    http://www.overspianos.com.au<br> Email:  mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au<br> _____________________________</div> </body> </html>