CBS years at S&S was improvements

[John Musselwhite]

At 06:43 PM 07/05/02 +0200, Richard B. wrote:

> > (and to some extent still needs) was the "customizing" in the touch and
> > tone that new Steinways have always needed, plus a few years of playing for
> > it to mature.                  John
> >
> >
>
>Here we have this "mature" concept again. Despite all the scientific
>explainations why this can not be so... time and time again people have this
>observation that instruments can get better as they get older.

With all due respect, you missed the point, Richard. Shortly before they 
were made (compared to their expected lifetime) the components of the piano 
were living trees and grazing sheep and other animals. There's a joke with 
some new pianos that says something about them being so new there are still 
leaves still growing from the parts.

I think we're all aware that new pianos have to settle and adjust, and new 
fine pianos and especially the traditionally-made one we're discussing have 
to be customized to some extent to the new owner's hearing and the piano's 
location and use.  After a few years of  tuning and regulating and the 
parts have all stabilized the piano is about as "mature" as it's going to 
get. As we all know, mechanically and tonally it's pretty-much downhill 
from there until it's rebuilt, hopefully again and again.

Some other manufacturers offer instant gratification in their pianos, with 
nice consistent reasonably-priced instruments that are already (supposedly) 
forced into maturity. Many even contain space-age parts that are inherently 
dimensionally stable so we don't need to regulate them as often either. 
After they've suffered the same slings and arrows as other instruments you 
can just get another that is identical to the original since it's almost 
cheaper to do that than rebuild them, at least, with their myriad 
"standard" models.

I suppose it's different with those other manufacturer's high-end pianos 
that are meant to actually compete with Steinway and others of their ilk. 
They are (from what I understand) made in laboratories rather than 
factories, with teams of their best and most dedicated engineers and 
craftsmen working on every instrument for as long as it takes to ensure 
their idea of perfection is realized rather than being made piecework by 
unionized workers. Considering the staggering costs of building a piano in 
this fashion, I imagine they would have to support this not by charging a 
fair price for what the pianos actually  cost to build and market, but with 
the profits from their other pianos popping off the assembly lines every 
few minutes.

It must be nice to have that kind of luxury.

                 John