As some of you may know, Del Fandrich, one of our active contributing members has been working on bringing back a historic book called "Piano Tone Building". Del did the editing, and a lot of other work on the book (see below).
We've exchanged a few emails about this, and this weekend he let me know the book is ready and available.
I asked Del to give us the particulars, the following is from Del ...
From 1916 through 1919 a unique series of meetings were held in Chicago and New
York. The heads of piano factories, their supervisors and managers, suppliers
and technical experts all came together to discuss piano making during trying
times. (WW I was being waged through most of this period.) Piano Tone Building
is the stenographic record of those meetings.
Considered a standard reference to the piano industry for 85 years, Piano Tone
Building is out of print and good copies are hard to find. Demand for this work
remains high, and this new edition has been created in response. Containing all
of the original text, it has been edited, reformatted and set with
reader-friendly type.
This 2006 edition also contains explanatory notes throughout, bringing it up to
date and making it a useful and informative addition to any music library.
In addition to the technical community -- manufacturers, engineers and piano
technicians -- Piano Tone Building 2006 will intrigue everyone whose interest in
the piano goes beyond banging out a few tunes on the family upright (which may
well have been built while these meetings were going on).
That's the end of the cover copy.
This book has a long history. It was originally printed by the American Steel
and Wire Company, which sponsored the meetings. The original work was
subsequently reproduced and photographically reduced in size. Later on this
reduced-size book was again photographically reproduced for a third printing. As
you can imagine, each generation became somewhat harder to read. I've scanned it
and, with the help of my wife (the professional book editor), have corrected the
spelling and punctuation errors (hopefully, all of them), replaced a bunch of
missing words and redesigned the whole book with new type. I've added some 150
footnotes either explaining obscure passages or bringing things up to date. In
some cases correcting the mythology that was rampant throughout the industry at
the time.
The cost of the book is $45 (plus postage and handling) and it can be purchased
either from us (Fandrich Piano Company) or from the Piano Technicians Guild. The PTG takes credit cards, we
don't. So it might be more convenient for most folks to order from them. Their
phone number is 913-432-9975 and their e.mail address is
ptg@ptg.org . My e.mail address is
fandrich@pianobuilders.com .
Congratulations, Del. I look forward to reading the book (again... I had a copy a long time ago). Thanks for taking me on as a student back in 1984! I owe you. [/b]
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