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I felt like Cinderella at the ball, had to leave early so I missed the best part, members playing those beautiful pianos!

But I think I learned alot, including posting pics! So, here it goes!

Preparing to glue laminate for the rim. Left to right M+H guest, Cool Nerd (in purple) Cool Nerd's Sister, A441's guest, kathyk, JeanneW's spouse, RealPlayer, JeanneW, CMS, Bernard.


Rim bending into press


Newly glued soundboard routed flush to inner rim


Hand cut bridges with SHARP chisels


The belly shop, that's RKVS1 left holding the bag!


The lunchroom!


Frank chatting with the Burgett brothers


A great day. I found forum members to be better than I had expected. Only wish we could have spent more time together!

We really must do more of this sort of thing!

Nice pics, Beelady! Wish I could've gone!

Jodi

Many thanks to Piano World and the Mason and Hamlin Piano Company who not only make the factory tour possible, but also a lot of fun!

Thanks to Frank B. (Piano World) and Cecil Ramirez of M&H for coordinating the event.

Thanks to BeeLady and TerryTunes for doing such a great job at putting together those super-cool name tags! (And extra thanks to BeeLady for getting the first batch of pictures up so quickly!)

Thanks to Bruce Clark, M&H piano engineer, for conducting a very informative, very educational, and thoroughly enjoyable tour of the M&H piano factory; and also to Kevin Burke of M&H for answering questions on the side during the tour.

Thanks to Paul van Ness of M&H for demonstrating on the M&H pianos with his virtuosic performances.

Thanks to the Burgett Brothers for being the great hosts that they were for the event, and for steering the factory to produce the marvelous instruments that we got to enjoy.

Apologies to those at the M&H factories who answered questions and/or made the tour informative/fun whose name I did not list. There are many of you. Though I did not note down all the names that I should, I thank you all nonetheless.

p.s. Thanks also to M&H for a free lunch and such wonderful souvenirs: "Building the World's Finist Piano" Mason & Hamlin DVD Tour, black leather pouch engraved with the M&H 150th anniversary logo, cut section of an M&H A's inner rim, and pieces of action parts to bring home ...
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... I thought I should list the above for the interest of, you know, full disclosure, since you all will be seeing posts on how MAGNIFICENT those M&H pianos are following this one (or on that other thread ) ...
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... Naaahhh! Who am I kidding... you already know how good a piano the M&H folks build. I just wanted to list them all out to "rub it in" for those who did not make the tour...

Well, I'm back in NY and it's good to be home, but I've got to say it was really (but really) difficult tearing myself away from the wonderfully warm company I enjoyed this weekend: PW members and M&H owners and staff.

My trip to Haverhill starts with a cute little anecdote: I took a Chinatown bus (Fung Wah bus) from Chinatown, NYC to Chinatown, Boston: $10 one way! Imagine! To get to the bus, I took a car service from my apartment to Chinatown (in downtown Manhattan--a little more than 3 miles) and that was $15! HaHa.

When the taxi I hired at the commuter rail station in Haverhill turned into the Best Western parking lot I knew without a doubt it was the correct address--the car out front had license plate number: PIANO W. I wonder who that might belong to?

kenny, your cocktail party was perfect, I hope the picture of the spread you offered us comes out well! Do post it.

RKVS1, thanks for your almost non-stop entertainment all weekend, dinner at 99's would not have been the same without your infectious sense of humour.

The tour of M&H is almost beyond description. I am awed, period. I don't think I've ever been guided through a process with as much knowledge, wisdom, and passion as Bruce Clark gave us today. He is intimate with every centimeter of the pianos they build. The most exciting part of the tour, for me, was witnessing the bending of the rims. Holy toledo! Awesome. Those presses just grap that wood by the tail and says to it, "Here! This is the shape we want you in." The process is really quite elegant. It's beautiful to behold Art with such brute force.

The M&H factory is brimming with ingenuity. I admire the creativity with which the machines that aid the building process are constructed. Lot's of cleverness, and not only in these machines but in certain design features of the pianos too.

And I can't believe how much I now know about how the pianos are built, and the amount of planning, material and skill that goes into constructing one of these instruments. I've a newfound respect for a craft I knew little about until today.

Thank you very much, everyone at M&H. The Burgett brothers, Cecil Ramirez, and the whole staff who went on working while staring eyes peered over their shoulders. This is a day I will remember. And Frank, it wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for you and PianoWorld.

Thanks again to everyone who patiently listened while I played in fits and starts through a piece of music that has fallen a bit out of familiarity, but it was a real pleasure to play one of those beautiful instruments.

Chris A., thank you much for the ride to Brewster, you made it possible for me to get home 2 hours earlier than what I had originally planned. Much appreciated.

Ahhh, lovely day. (My feet are a little tired... I wonder how that could be!?)

I had to add another impressive sight at M+H. While we were waiting for all to arrive, we were milling around in the entry hall. On the wall was a glass case containing glowing endorsements, thank you notes etc.

The most prominent was a printout of a bcarey's thread from her church's BB purchase! bcarey, jolly, kenny and others are immortalized in the hallowed halls of M+H!

I'd like to add my thanks to the M&H people, to Frank, and to everyone in the group who made the experience so enjoyable. I've been on a lot of factory tours and this was by far the best. It's fun to watch computers and cars being assembled, but that's all mechanics using totally man-made materials. Piano manufacturing combines science and art with organic, living materials. I'm sure that CNC routers and CAD/CAM systems improve things, but it is clear that art will always be a key part of the process. It was also nice to see M&H recruiting younger workers who can carry the craft forward as remarkable people like Bruce retire.

The tour also made me feel good about buying my BB - after listening to all of you play, I at least know what the piano is capable of! There's also a story that speaks very well of the M&H culture. My piano's high-gloss polyester finish (almost 1/8" thick) has developed some cosmetic cracks in the top and fallboard, and M&H is going to build new ones for me. I asked Bruce whether I would need specialty help in installing them (I'm 3,000 miles from the factory), and he gave a truly customer-friendly response - "don't worry about it, this is our problem and we'll do whatever we need to do to make it right." Any company that thinks that way has a bright future. It was quite a contrast to a typically-awful experience with United Airlines, which was how I got to Boston. Maybe the Burgetts should buy an airline!

P.S. Great pics, BeeLady! Good luck with the barn...

Let me just add my voice to the chorus of those who had a great time yesterday!

It was a treat to hear Bruce Clark speak so enthusiastically about all the operations at M&H. And awesome to see so many different phases of the manufacturing process, from the painstaking handwork to the gee-whiz CNC machinery. Cecil was a great host and infused the whole occasion with effusive camaraderie. We were all made to feel most welcome, and at home.

Great, too, to see and hear many PW members, some familiar, some new to me. Sorry I didn't get up and play...there was actually a piece I would've happily played if I'd thought to bring the music along...it wasn't in memory, but I think you all would have liked it. Suffice it to say, I'll make sure I have something ready to go for our next meeting!

Many thanks to all of you who posted pictures and reviews of this tour for us damn-fool idiots who didn't attend. And a special thanks to Bernard for his great write up.

What a great tour! A big thank you to Frank at Pianoworld and everyone at Mason and Hamlin for putting the tour together. I could go on and on about all of the great things about the tour, but I'd be repeating what so many others here have already said. The tour is a wonderful way to learn more about what goes into great piano making. And it was nice being able to meet in person Pianoworld members and to hear the different personalities come out when we got to play those great pianos! Mason and Hamlin is a class act and they build superb world class pianos.

Jeanne W

When America rocks....it R*O*CK*S!!

I always thought that anybody in the U.S. shopping at the price range of a Mason Hamlin and not buying one, should be charged with treason.

Besides stupidity.

Few exceptions granted!

[ very few..... ]

Norbert

More Pictures

And even more pictures

And a Thank You from me

WAIT A MINUTE!

Tell me more! I don't even remember what I said! gryphon, the grammer policeman may be in hot pursuit.

I just read this, as I was drooling over everyone's trip to M&H. I am so envious that I could cry. Hopefully, I will get to make that trip at some time. I couldn't make this one. Life does have a way of inteferring with what you really would like to do if you didn't have to make choices.

Just imagine that I was there, because I would absolutely love to see how the BB was made.

Oh! And I'm sure that meeting the PW people would have been icing on the oh so delicious cake.

And some more.

Here is an inner rim being laminated - strip by strip, being fed through the glue roller. These guys were so synchronized and uniform looking, all I could think of was the Wonkas in Willy Wonka. I was so curious about the fact they were all asian, at risk of being not PC, I asked one of our guides about it. He said that they've had very good luck with Chinese workers who come up from Boston. That for whatever reason, they're very dedicated to the work and do an excellent job.




The press forms the freshly glued laminate into the inner rim.






This was an old mold. I'm not sure if it was still in use. I think it is, but slated to be replaced. I thought it was quite a work of art - in and of itself.


This is the hot room where they put the freshly laminated rims to dry out - really, really dry out - at 7 % (or something like that) relative humidity. It was quite cozy warm until all of us crammed in there. Those legs were there for a quick drying as they were quickly for awaiting shipments.



The skeleton



A soundboard. They outsource their soundboards, but they are rough around the edges (literally) until they do their fine tuning.



The lacquer room - here's where the beautiful bodies come for their finishing. It was very funny. Even the freshly laquered and almost finished pianos had clunky, dirty old legs. They reminded me of fine ladies who had gone for a gallop through the mud. I guess they don't want the real real thing to be marred in the process, so they don't get their real legs until they make it to their destination.



One picture of the many points along the way in preparing the action.

bcarey, your now famous thread is here!

OK, two questions.

1. Why are you all listening to the radio while taking the tour?

2. Where do they outsource their soundboards to? (Yeah, yeah, I know. Never end a sentence with a preposition.)

Oh, all right. To whom do they outsource their soundboards?

http://www.pianobolduc.com/

makes their soundboards.
Lots of talk about different kinds of spurce.
Sitka, and the two others.
Anyone else remember?

I am so jealous! I was doing a recording session with Gary Burgett about a month ago, and he was telling me all about the event and it made me wish I had signed up! But it was on the day of my graduation. I'm glad you all had fun!

OK, I'm about over the depression of having not been there...So, could everybody start making some nice detailed comments on what they thought of the finished PIANOS they played or heard played? Looks like there were some heavy-duty players and discerning ears in that crowd.

Since M&H is on my short list of pianos I may never be able to afford much less justify (along with Charles Walter, perhaps a few of the more "moderate" Germans, maybe Shigeru and Yamaha S...), I'd really like to hear some opinons, comparisons, etc. (Dreaming is not unhealthy, right?)

kathyk,
Perfect description.

JohnC,
They have a really neat system... Bruce Clark's "radio" had a microphone and his brilliant explanation of everything we saw was broadcast to our headsets. That way he didn't have to shout and we could all clearly hear everything he said.

HammerHead,
I haven't time to go into detailed description, but I will say it was a dream. I'm planning to purchase something bigger in 2 to 3 years and M&H is definitely on my list.

John C: on where the soundboards come from:

I didn't catch the name of the source, although Bruce did mention it. What I can tell you is that he differentiated between white Eastern spruce, Sitka spruce and a third (sometimes called yellow) spruce (maybe someone else will remember the exact name). They actually tested all three in pianos they built up. The Sitka came in last, both for tone and appearance. The other two were about equal, with the yellow favoring the treble, and the white better over the whole range. So they've standardized on white spruce for their pianos.

HammerHead: on comparisons:

I didn't give any of the pianos a real workout myself. The A impressed with a big sound one wouldn't expect from its size (but that's been mentioned elsewhere). I liked the AA quite a bit as I was noodling away on it. Bruce said they've pared away some mass from the action in the AA, giving it a lighter feel than earlier Masons. I don't know if that extends to the rest of the line.

I find Masons tonally quite different from many brands, including Yamaha and Steinway. Richer, maybe darker. I didn't sense the bell-like treble I expect from Masons, but I wasn't paying close attention, and many people were playing at the same time I was. But I've noticed it in many other Masons, both old and new. I find the M&H tone just scrumptious.

I'll reconsider the question and maybe post again. I look forward to reading the opinions of others who played.