Last year I gave a talk at U. Michigan Ann Arbor about differences between new NY and Hamburg Ds, and in preparing this I asked Ron Losby for his view on future consolidation. He responded that he would like to see a distinction maintained between these two quite different pianos. I didn't try to clarify whether he meant only keeping the obvious tonal and touch differentiations, or something deeper about manufacturing (design, sourcing parts, etc.). Interestingly, no one at the Queens factory or 57th St. knew exactly why some of the NY-Hamburg differences occur, e.g., the different spacing on the bass bridges of the highest trichord of wound strings. People have various theories but no historical facts, because no one knows when certain decisions were made or by whom, much less why. I agree with Mr. Losby that it would be sad to lose the basic qualities that distinguish the NY and Hamburg styles.Laurence ----- Obetween Nriginal Message -----From: Greg Granoff Date: Monday, March 8, 2010 10:22 pmSubject: Re: [CAUT] MythbustersTo: caut at ptg.org> 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. > > Ron N> >> > > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20100309/3238c3b3/attachment.htm>
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