>.. but first I have to determine which ones are educable; ------------------------------------------- >Not long ago a client with a trashy old Kimball grand proudly boasted he'd >just bought a rebuilt Steinway M. Guess what, it sounded just like the old >Kimball, only harder to tune. > >Bruce Talk about educable, and Kimballs <G>, I hosted the PTG meeting in my shop/theme park/landfill Thursday night to show off the Kimball grand I had barely playable by then, but not nearly finished. Our local Steinway aficionado (a first rate tech and rebuilder) sat down and played it, noting immediately that it "needed juice" in the treble. It has Isaac hammers, with absolutely no voicing done yet ( I didn't even get the strings leveled before the meeting, thanks to a spinning world from a sinus infection that would kill a rat, but that's another, and very long story). The treble in the piano isn't the glass breaker we've come to expect, but there's another set of sounds there that we aren't used to hearing - especially in an old Kimball. Others tried it a bit and - gradually - began to make positive comments about the bass, sustain in the treble, and general clarity. I noticed that the Steinway guy kept going back and both playing and plucking different notes in the treble and killer octave like he was trying to fit what he was hearing into what he knew. I'm not sure what he was thinking, but it was obvious that he was hearing something that didn't seem to exactly fit in his technical world and he was intrigued. Watching this, it occurred to me once again that being willing to objectively look at something that doesn't fit the preconception (even when it isn't comfortable) and being prepared to think for himself and modify conclusions as necessary when he likes what he sees (or hears) is how the guy got to be so good at what he does in the first place. That's educable. Ron N
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