Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Request For Help Re: Pianist Corner Forum

BTW, Ed Foote, by consideration, I mean to say: I hope that you would think about why she was responding the way she was, and that you might possibly be able to do something the next time around to compensate for the experience--that is part of the learning process and how we manage to continually improve our approach. I was passing no judgment on using clips in that scenario, nor did I mean to imply that you should go back and change anything. That was the right call.

Maybe we can talk about this in another thread perhaps. There are many ways to tweak an action. I'm not suggesting that this is the ideal way to go, but if you didn't want to redo the action geometry for whatever reason, you could rotate the action forward (i.e., lower the front feet and slightly raise the back) which would allow you hang hammers out further on the shanks without profoundly changing the proportions of the action geometry. It would change the line of centres, which is, IMHO, extremely important, but this is rarely correct on the S&S to begin with--it might even help to put it where it was supposed to be.

I wouldn't say just theater organs... Any organ with electric action. However, mechanical action organs aren't the be all and end all in tactile feed back. Not much beyond a couple stops the saturation of pallet pluck takes over any meaningful response. Once the use of couplers and large registrations occur the playing weight just to get the pallets to open looses all meaningful nuance. Really mechanical action becomes exponentially less desirable once anything beyond a single stop or two is used. Electric actions also can have a "tracker touch" type keyboard.

I'm sure reproducing a keyboard/action up until escapement is easily done. That's all that's required for the tactile element. Artists could even tour with their own half-piano!

Maybe it is interesting to know that Mikhail Pletnev has stopped giving concerts as a pianist for six years. The reason why is (according to what he said), that he didn't like the newest grand pianos he had to play on in the concert halls around the world. Now he is back, playing on a Shigeru Kawai. As I read, this producer uses lots of carbon and plastic instead of wood. Maybe this helps to find "a better balance"? I never played on a Shigeru Kawai myself, so I cannot say anything about how they feel. But I have heard Maestro Pletnev a few months ago in a very impressing recital, playing Beethoven, Schumann and Scriabin, and he seemed to feel perfectly at ease. I'm not a technician, I'm not sure at all, but I guess, all this has to do with the problem you described.

Theater organs sometimes had piano stops. Those are like player pianos, but are operated by pressure rather than vacuum.

Very true and sometimes in addition to the ubiquitous Wurlitzer vertical, and a reproducing grand in more luxurious situations. Although it seems to me most kept their vacuum equipment rather than running off blower static. The only real difference was the action magnets on the suction instead of a roll player. In any case they did not have any inherent expression... Aside from the swell shades of the chamber the piano was in.

Yes, indeed, Shigeru Kawai is doing excellent work to improve the state of performance quality pianos. Sadly, there are not yet enough of them on concert stages--in time, this too will change.

Thank you for the Mikhail Pletnev example. There are far more pianists out there--more than people would ever expect--that are so disappointed with the quality and condition of the concert pianos world-wide that they would rather not diminish their art by subjecting themselves and audiences to such lacklustre and uninspired sounds. And, like independent piano technicians, pianist that speak out about piano quality are also targeted; piano companies are supposed to be in service to great pianists, not the other way around.

Very true and sometimes in addition to the ubiquitous Wurlitzer vertical, and a reproducing grand on stage in more luxurious situations. Although it seems to me most kept their vacuum equipment rather than running off blower static. The only real difference was the action magnets on the suction instead of a roll player. In any case they did not have any inherent expression... Aside from the swell shades of the chamber the piano was in.

Interesting, isn't it? On the other hand, I have heard Radu Lupu in the same concert series, playing another very impressing recital (Schumann and Schubert) on the usual Steinway D of the hall, prepared by the local technician. The sound was marvelous, far away from being "lacklustre and uninspired", and Maestro Lupu had one of his great moments. I think, what matters is to have a real choice, and not just one "role model" surrounded by some pathetic imitators. Also Steinway will profit from the increasing diversity, there is nothing better than real challenge

Many pianists are afraid to complain because it gives the promoter a reason not to re-engage them.

I think it all comes down to marketing. The last thing Steinway want is people buying old, used Steinway's. They weren't pleased with Gould preferring a 1940's model in the 70's. The cabinet design's fixed - what else have they left to sell? The latest touch/tone! Which will always need to increase.

The best Steinway I ever played was a pre-WWII one. Steinway could make pianos like that again if they wanted to. With the vintage hammers that piano could really sing and with far better sustain and lyricism than any other Steinway I've ever played. Supposedly in the years before I got to it one could feel the bass vibrations through the chairs in the auditorium, but the sound board deteriorated one summer when the air conditioning went out. And there were some other issues such as very slightly audible action noise in the pp range of playing, and it needed to be restrung - there was a bit of graininess in the tone in the bass.

The the right new hammers will make one sing again as well. They don't need to be "vintage." The unfortunate thing is that the market for 6 digit pianos is quite small. And, despite marketed sentimentalism, Steinway isn't at the top of the ladder... and there are others over-seas starting to climb over them and other "famous" names to get to the top.