Quality in Pianos -- again

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: <MsPiano4@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: April 04, 2000 6:40 AM
Subject: Re: Quality in Pianos


> Richard/List
> It seems that in giving advise on grand selection often we are not
comparing
> apples with apples.  I find it less confusing to separate pianos by
> construction type. I use two categories for this.  Hand made and Massed
> Produced.  Some companies fall into a gray area but in general it makes
> sense.
>
> Some attributes of hand made piano's are.
> 1.  Small production.
> 2.  Hardwood rims like maple or birch
> 3.  Sand cast plates.
> 4.  Heavy bracing.
> 5.  Much longer production time.
>
> Massed produced:
> 1.  Large production
> 2.  Softer rim material like mahogany
> 3.  V pro plates
> 4.  Bracing is usually spruce or some other soft wood.
>
> In massed produced it must also be mentioned that their are least three
> different quality levels re: Yamaha C series, GH series, GA series.  Kawai
> and Young Chang also have three levels.  So recommending a piano by name
> alone is unwise.
>
> Finally to place a massed produced piano in the same category as a hand
made
> Steinway, Baldwin, Charles Walters, Mason , Etc., seems to put them in a
> class where they don't belong.
>
> Greg

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While Hans Sanders -- see his separate post of 4/4/00 -- has a point in that
there are few truly 'hand made' pianos around there are certainly
differences of manufacturing scale.  I wonder, though, what difference does
it all make?  On what do we judge 'quality?'  Is quality based on the number
of pianos a given manufacturer produces in any given year?  What difference
does that make to piano performance?  To its longevity?  Is a nice tight
fitting joint any better because it is made by a workman with a chisel and
mallet instead of a CNC router?  I would have to say no.  Unless, of course,
some part of a more desirable overall design had to be altered to
accommodate the CNC router and that alteration itself affected the
performance of the finished product.  Which situation obviously has happened
from time to time.  But, then, when hasn't the requirements of production
taken precedence over performance?

What about those differences between mass-produced and, shall we say,
less-mass-produced pianos mentioned by Greg?

As most of you know, I am partial to maple (or some comparable hardwood)
belly bracing.  Yet Steinway, Bosendorfer and more than a few others have
used spruce or fir or some similar softwood bracing for better than a
century now.  Does that fact make these pianos inferior in some way?

I am also partial to green sand cast plates.  Yet plates cast using the
vacuum process fulfill all of the requirements of excellent piano plates.

Rims?  Yes, here there is certainly a performance difference in the material
used.  But surely ways could be figured out to use maple (or some comparable
hardwood) to bend rims in mass production.  And in all probability rims made
of 'select hardwood' could be designed to perform better if the builders
thought it important enough.

Is it the quantity of production that matters?  Or the performance of the
finished product.  Is it the materials used?  Or how those materials are put
together to form a unified whole.  Is it the aesthetic of that flawless
soundboard?  If so, then what about all those wonderful pianos of a century
or so back that would have to be thrown away today because of the builders
choice of 'inferior' soundboard wood -- it simply wouldn't be good enough
for today's more 'discriminating' buyer.  Or should it be the performance of
that soundboard that matters?  Where does the design enter the picture?  Or
should it not be part of the equation at all?

Has anyone else noticed that increasingly piano sellers -- be they sellers
of new or rebuilt pianos-- seem to be selling appearance, detailing,
materials and features.  These are the things that speak of 'quality.'  When
you pin these folks down they will, of course, assure you that their pianos
sound just wonderful.  But if so, why isn't that what they sell?  Why does
all this other stuff take such overwhelming precedence?  And then along
comes a piano like the Petrof which, by what I've been reading on pianotech,
still has a somewhat less than desirable reputation for 'quality' -- yet
folks are buying them because 'they sound good.'

Or is all of this just my imagination.

Del