[CAUT] Steinway or Forgery?

[Sloane, Benjamin (sloaneba)]

    Hello David,
   I've appreciated your responses to the post, it has been informative.
   For me, in any expertise, it is difficult to improve the standards in that specialty without polemics. Fighting has rules, however, and pugnacity for its own sake is going too far. You can't just be combative to be combative. You don't fight because you want to fight, but because you have strong convictions about something. Unless people have strong convictions about something, it is not even important in the first place. You also attack the ideas of people, not their character, in my view, or subtly attack their character by refuting their ideas because you don't like them.    
 
   You stated,
   "My view is that the introduction of the full diaphragmatic soundboard created a much more flexible assembly and in the process (and combined with a heavier hammer) boosted the whump at attack creating a sense of greater power."

   Could you bring some chronological context to this for those of us that do not know in relation to Steinway? Or did I miss that part? What year did they start using it?
    - Ben

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of David Love
Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 9:03 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Steinway or Forgery?

Well that would be nice but you can only bring up the treble to the degree
that the board allows you to bring it up.  A very bright percussive and
distorted splat won't necessarily be a good match for a huge gnarly bass.  I
think, on the contrary, that what you can reasonably get out of the treble
dictates to some degree how you must voice the rest of the piano.  If the
treble is a disaster then you choose your poison.  My view is that the
introduction of the full diaphragmatic soundboard created a much more
flexible assembly and in the process (and combined with a heavier hammer)
boosted the whump at attack creating a sense of greater power.  It also
created more distortion in the middle and shorter sustain in the treble.
Sadly, it may have also shortened the effective life of the soundboard.
While I can't really attest to the motivations it seems that it was driven
by a lust for power but there was a trade off and the older minimally
thinned (bass and treble shelf only) boards perform better, in my view, with
a more balanced tone and better control in a broader dynamic range.  It's
interesting when you have the opportunity, as I have recently, of comparing
side by side a pre diaphragmatic soundboard (a healthy one) next to a fully
diaphragmatic one.  The new one is clearly louder, bigger whump, but the
quality of tone is diminished (at least in my view):  more distortion,
poorer sustain, lack of control in the lower dynamic range.  Pianos are more
than just a big bass.  Bass sections in the literature are mostly
supportive.  It's not rock and roll, after all.  With the piano literature
we don't wait anxiously for the bass solo (if we ever did:-)).  

This is not necessarily to fault Steinway for making this change.  I assume
they had their reasons.  But you don't get something for nothing and I think
the trade off wasn't necessarily all positive.  Perhaps in the short term
for a louder whumpier big bang concert instrument.  But even then, I've seen
many of those pianos begin to fail after a relatively short time.  With the
smaller instruments that don't need that bigger whump I think it was a poor
trade.  Of course, that's my esthetic opinion.  

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com


-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Sloane, Benjamin (sloaneba)
Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 11:53 AM
To: 'caut at ptg.org'
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Steinway or Forgery?

Every one criticizes the CBS years. Yet one thing I find consistently when I
sit in front of a CBS Steinway is a powerful bass that outpowers every
Steinway I hear, from decades before and after, even 25, 30, 40 years into
its life. With a bass like that, you can bring up the treble 'till your
heart's content.