[CAUT] Mythbusters

[Greg Granoff]

Yes, Ulrich made it pretty clear that with a German president in charge,
there would be many other changes ultimately besides sostenuto installation.
He seemed downright tickled at the coming changes, though my impression from
the conversation was that they were definitely not trying to homogenize the
sounds of the two instruments.  In addition to sost stuff, I think we can
look for Hamburg style end blocks with their multiple adjustment screws and
rollers for the end pins rather than our crude little NY plates.

Greg

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Fred
Sturm
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 11:38 AM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Mythbusters

Word in NYC a couple years ago was that the belly mounted system of  
Hamburg was very much under consideration, and that the Steinway  
basement guys were lobbying very strongly against, because of what  
they considered the relative ease of service for all elements taken as  
a whole (especially ability to pull underlevers much more easily). But  
Hamburg will probably prevail. There is no question that they are  
working seriously on consolidating manufacture (as in NY Steinway  
producing all action parts, Kelly producing all plates, Kluge  
producing all keyboards) and eliminating differences in design and  
production where possible. Which raises lots of questions, as, for  
instance, what to do about hammers. The NYC plant has invested a lot  
in hammer manufacture over the last several years. I'm sure they would  
love to produce all hammers there, but the different philosophies (and  
sonic results) each have their passionate proponents. So that's not  
likely very soon.
	But things like sostenuto and keyframe glides are likely to be  
consistent fairly soon, or that is my strong impression from various  
conversations. With a Hamburg guy now running the show, it may happen  
faster.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu

On Mar 8, 2010, at 12:14 PM, Greg Granoff wrote:

> This just in--- at the Pacific NW and Western Regional conference  
> just ended
> in Bellevue Washington, Ulrich Gerhart of UK Steinway operations was  
> asked
> during his day long concert prep demo about that (sost rod and  
> abandoning
> the NY mounting style at long last) and his answer was a cryptic "stay
> tuned".........
>
> Greg Granoff
> HSU
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf  
> Of Ron
> Nossaman
> Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 10:08 AM
> To: caut at ptg.org
> Subject: Re: [CAUT] Mythbusters
>
> reggaepass at aol.com wrote:
>
>> Seeing these two points consecutively begs another question: Whoever
>> thought up mounting the sostenuto rod on the action brackets; if it's
>> such a great idea, why don't others do it (including Steinways made  
>> in
>> Hamburg);
>
> An excellent question. Why is everyone so eager to copy tuned
> duplexes, but not an action mounted sostenuto - including...?
>
>
> and there plans to unify sos. rod location between the two
>> Steinway factories?
>
> Each is quite willing for the other to follow their superior
> example. <G>
> Ron N
>