[CAUT] 9' Estonia

[Don]

Hi Avery,

At the risk of sticking my neck out--I'd have them look for a "very good" 7
foot. I'm sure they will be using sound reinforcement in a Sanctuary that
size. I generally feel that the 7 foot pianos I've seen are better balanced
than the nine foot ones. I'll climb farther out on that "limb" and suggest
that they look at the top of the line Petrov pianos with the "magnetic"
action.

I've serviced one of the brand new Estonia grands in the 185 cm (six feet)
size and am distinctly "under whelmed". The client loves it, however, and
they are the "final arbiters". I found the workmanship a bit sloppy. One
"interesting" feature is that the glide bolts are in the key bed rather
than on the key frame.

As you all probably know I do recommend humidity control--and on this
Estonia so far I have been unsuccessful in educating the client. As a
result in January the key frame was warped up and slapping, but by April it
was firmly bedded. The client has retrofitted under the floor hot water
heating which may be a factor.

No stability measures (such as tapping coils) have yet been undertaken.

So far pitch correction has been:

Date		A4	worst note	final pitch	humidity
040124		3.3	15.1		-2.9		25%
040416		16.3	42		1.1		37%
040820		8	16		-0.09		48%

There don't seem to be a lot of "flaws" as far as false beats. The
instrument is not particularly pleasant to tune. The amount of sound is
large for a piano of this size and sustain is good, but the quality of
sound is coarse.

I feel quite limited in what I can do for the instrument--as I said the
client "adores" the tonal colors, so I will have to win their confidence
before I can gingerly suggest they modify the sound.

At 12:14 PM 19/11/2004 -0600, you wrote:
>List,
>
>A good customer of mine, the Minister of Music at a fairly large Baptist 
>Church,
>just called me asking about a concert grand. He's going to look at a new 
>Estonia
>and wanted to know if I knew anything about it. I don't. Do any of you?

Regards,
Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.P.T.
Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat

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