In a piano worth $100,000's is this a good practice ?

[antares]

Terry Farrell wrote :


> My comments below are not meant to nit pick details, but rather to take a
> jab or two at the Steinway "mistique".

> Why would you throw a good instrument out or replace it with the next one (a
> new one I assume?) - why not just replace (and redesign) the soundboard,
> etc.? If that is all that needs doing, new board, bridge caps, a few
> thousand bucks and you are back in business - likely sounding better than
> new - certainly cheaper than shelling out another $90,000.

Well Terry,

for instance, take the one I recently worked on, a Steinway D at the
Amsterdam Conservatory...
This instrument is about 20 years old and it has a huge problem in  'the
octave'. It already has been re-strung etc about 5-6 years ago.
If I would tell the director this story, he would

a. not believe it, and
b. not pay for the next very expensive repair (it is not just a few thousand
bucks I would think).

In the case of the Conservatory, all I can do is replace the hammers from
time to time and keep the thing in as much good shape as is possible.

Now, the Concertgebouw is something else...
After a number of years (!) the new D is not good enough anymore, so they
buy another one and shove the now 'old one' on the side, where it will play
'second fiddle' for a number of years. After that, the older D moves to just
another place in the building etc etc.

We just repaired one such 'older' D's and it sounds very nice again, except,
that you can hear 'the age'...here we go again!
If you compare this D with a younger one, you can tell the difference.

I don't think my business partner and I have the full expertise and
assuredness to make it like a 'brand new' Steinway.
What we can do, is renew ribs, or replace a soundboard, a pin block etc, but
I don't think we can do it 'just as well' as they do in the factory.
What we do is actually pretty good. We're careful and we both have valuable
experience, but, at least I, can not pretend to know how to renew
everything, so that the D afterwards will be as good, or, even better, than
before.
Besides, I certainly can not do these things because I fill my time only
with regulation tuning and voicing.

> 
> And the next point - I'm don't keep up real well with concert grand prices,
> but isn't Steinway on of the least expensive among decent piano
> manufacturers? 

According to me, Fazioli now makes, together with Bösendorfer, the biggest
instruments, and I think Fazioli is the most expensive.

Antares,

Amsterdam, Holland