Wapin promotion

[Brian Trout]

Hi Graeme,

I think you're onto somewhat of a bigger picture.

You wrote: <snip>We all get used to certain sounds and gravitate towards
those that we enjoy. <snip> Another reviewer may have the opposite opinion.
<snip> ...everyone has an opinion on most things and many people will defend
their opinions too, even if presented with overwhelming evidence to the
contrary.

I believe Stephen Birkett also touched upon this idea as well, when he
remarked about changing the overall tonal characteristics of a piano.  (Just
what changes are really good?)

People do get attached to a particular sound.  On the concert stage, if you
present a Yamaha artist with a very mellow Steinway, he'll probably hate it,
calling for more and more 'lacquer' until those hammers are like little
rocks, and then he might almost be appeased.  If you present a Steinway
artist who's used to a mellow Steinway with a very bright Yamaha, he'll
likely find it shrill, and call for the 'steamer guy' to make fluffballs out
of those hammers, and then find the piano rather lifeless.

In the shop, when we're working on a project, we hear a piano's tone and
voice develop, through the rebuilding process.  It's exciting to hear it
become an individual.  I know of a shop (personally) that reconditioned a
small Shomacker grand which originally had a very old, worn, and hard set of
hammers on it.  It was smoke damaged, and was restrung, had new hammers and
dampers, as well as some other stuff.  When it got the new hammers and was
voiced (in the shop), it was noted that this thing did sound pretty good
compared to what it used to be.  Well, the customer, upon delivery, said
"YOU'VE RUINED MY PIANO!!!"  A fellow technician got the job of going out to
the house, and voicing to their liking.  His report was that he had to
harden up the hammers to the extent that he said he didn't even find it
musical anymore.  He actually used CA, directly on the strike point, (I'm
not exaggerating) on the final top hammers to get them hard enough to please
the customer.  And that's what the customer wanted to hear.  Sad, but true.

Much of what we do, and see, and hear in the piano world is subjective.
What sounds right to one, will not be pleasing to another.  So we can go
round and round about things like tuning styles, regulation specs, desirable
sustain times, 'appropriate waveforms', hammer hardness (or resilience, or
...), termination points, bridge pinning patterns, the list can go on, and
on, sort of like my posts <grin>.  It all has a scientific 'cause and
effect' to the specifics of it.  But the final product is subjective.  And
the hard thing to admit, is that just because you're opinion is different
than mine, doesn't make me right and you wrong, (and vice versa).  Asian
pianos sound different than American pianos.  Renner Blues sound different
than Ables.  Wapin may sound different than conventional bridge pinning. (I
don't have personal knowledge.)  Ron Nossaman's soundboards may sound
different than Del Fanderich's.  We gravitate toward what we find appealing,
and many times we grow to find appealing, that which we've devoted much time
in developing and working upon.  Sometimes others will find the same
pleasure in where you've gone.  Sometimes not.

If you'll promise to be nice to me in spite of my liking the color blue, I
promise to be nice to you in spite of your liking the color red. :-)

Enough said by me.  I'm off to Brandon.  Yeaaaahhhhh!!!!!!!

Wishing you all a fine day.

Brian Trout
Quarryville, PA
btrout@desupernet.net


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