concert grand longevity

[Michael J. Wathen]

Allen,

My understanding comes from a recent conversation with Gray Green of
Steinway. He says that the concert instruments owned by Steinway are kept
in circulation for 3 to 5 years.  He told me in December that right now the
average age for a C & A piano is 3 years.  After this time they are retired
to whom ever the local dealer can sell them to. 

We have several faculty members with Ds in their homes that were originally
C & A pianos.  They are well suited for these people and their owners are
content.

I take care of the Baldwin pianos loaned to the Symphony here at Music
Hall.  We have two SF-10s and 1 concert grand all three are about three
years old. The instruments before that were 5 years.  When we recieved the
new instruments 3 years ago my observation was that they were superior to
their replacements. However, I remember feeling the same way when their
replacements were new.  So, in a way this verifies for me that good newer
instruments are better and the older instruments loose their luster.

As for your 1976 D, a bridge cap is probably in order. Chances are that
even that will not restore the instrument well enough to compete with the
other D.  My own feeling is that over time the string acquires a stronger
and stronger coupling with the bridge while at the same time the soundboard
is lossing elasticity with age. The bridge and the soundboard together sap
the energy to fast. This energy is received and dispersed by the board as
noise (dull sounds, slaps, and pings).  On a newer piano everything resists
the transfer of energy out of the string (stronger impedance). As time and
seasons move on the piano and its components move closer and closer to some
sort of equilibrium state ( strings embed, gluing surfaces deform
themselves to mate better, and the board is more deformed from its original
state).

I used to think that the sound deterioration had to do with things like
glue joints loosening up, loose bridge pins, and capo bar embedding.  Now I
have a different understanding which is basically that the first impulses
down the length of the string accounts for the greatest dampening. These
impulses arrive at the bridge pin BEFORE	any standing harmonic wave has
setup on the string.  This means that the energy enters the soundboard
system as noise.  In a newer piano this initial impulse energy has more
trouble getting into the soundboard so it is reflected away from the
termination point and remains in the string.  All reflected energy goes
towards setting up the standing harmonic wave whose energy is slowly given
over to the soundboard (sustain).

Given your description about the 1976 piano I would have to say that it is
a perfect candidate for the Wapin!
Michael J. Wathen			For Information about Wapin click on URL below
michael.wathen@uc.edu		http://ucccm56.ccm.uc.edu