JD, IMHO Del is far closer to being right than you. As I apprenticed with Del and he taught me scaling procedures, etc., I can say that a great deal more thought goes into his scale recommendations than any String Maker I have known. Yes, I do disagree with Del about some nuances of scaling, but he's been at it for a VERY LONG TIME and he is a first rate rebuilder, who learned it "ln the trenches"! To say that it is "stupid" to alter the plain wire scale of a (gasp) Steinway is sacrilege, is either not paying attention or in itself "stupid". I will say that most Steinways that I have rebuilt have a scale that is close and they only need minor "tweeking", compared to a whole bunch of other manufactured "PSOs". My rebuilding philosophy is very similar to Del's, in that I want the piano to have a REAL piano tone, not some "clanky" "toinky" sounding PSO. Yes, Del does, sometimes, get a bit carried away with the "Logorhythms", but at least he has years of rebuilding and formal training to back it up. I know Del is reading this and saying, "hey, I don't need you to fight my battles", but I do it out of choice and to give the list another view point. (Of which, we seem to getting an awful lot of from you!) As for scaling, in general, My personaly opinion is: DON'T LET ANYONE, WHO DOESN'T HAVE REBUILDING SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE, TOUCH THAT SCALE! Sorry didn't mean to blare that out so loud. Must have been a Yamaha moment there. There seems to be an awful lot of "String Makers" that, all of a sudden, think they are capable of "Scaling" YOUR string replacements. That's Egomaniacal B.S. IMHO! If you do rebuilding, then learn how to EVALUATE scales yourself. Don't be lazy and leave the most important item to some other yahoo to do. In short, John, LIGHTEN UP! My Flame Suit is zipped up tight. Fire away! Joe Garrett, RPT, (Oregon)
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC