At 08:07 AM 08/05/02 -0400, Terry wrote:
>Reasonable point. But what is one to conclude when 30-year-old brand X
>pianos regularly have loose action part, poor alignment, rubbing this and
>that, way out of regulation, many string noises, uneven tone, etc.
I'd conclude that either the owner or the technician wasn't looking after
the piano very well, especially if it's a hand-made brand X instrument.
>- and brand Y regularly have near new-looking and performing actions,
>great tuning characteristics, nice tone, etc.?
A neglected brand Y instrument won't fare very well either, although to
some extent I think they're designed to tolerate a certain amount of neglect.
>No one 30 year-old piano tells the whole story of a manufacturer, but
>dozens and dozens from the same manufacturer with very similar
>characteristics start to present a clear picture.
Two pictures come to my mind. One is a hand-painted canvas in oils with
shading, brush strokes and indeed faults in each one that can be discovered
and cherished over the years. Each one is different and while some are
better than others, they're all original paintings. They're also somewhat
fragile, and in order to be preserved they have to be kept in a good
environment and "serviced" now and then to keep them in good condition. A
good craftsman can even correct some of the "faults" without taking away
from the original painting.
The other picture is a fairly inexpensive mass-produced print of a similar
painting that is certainly enjoyable and all the mistakes in the original
are nicely covered up or eliminated totally, but one is pretty-much the
same as the next one. You don't need to do much to preserve them, and when
the inks finally fade you just buy another that looks very much like the
last one did when it was new.
A third picture (actually, genre of them) just came into my mind. This
includes those of Velvet Elvis and dogs dressed like humans playing poker
or pool. In piano terms those are the "basement pianos"... the ones that
can't be taken apart anymore because the parts have all been finished over
with Roxotone or perhaps Varathaned in brilliant circus colors with all the
ivories painted according to the note. We can ignore those for this discussion.
There is nothing wrong with any of these pictures because there will always
be people who love, hate or are indifferent to all of them. The technicians
who look after and restore the pictures often have a totally different view
than the general public has since they are up on the more esoteric aspects
of the works.
For some reason a few technicians crab about the oil paintings while being
well-paid to make sure they continue to give enjoyment to their owners, who
incidentally paid for the paintings whether you like them or not. They
present a particular challenge to the technician because they aren't
perfect, but at least they are made of standard materials so correction is
possible. It gives the technician the chance to show what they can do, not
just relax and let the job almost do itself.
It also gives them the chance to crab too, I suppose.
John
John Musselwhite, RPT - Calgary, Alberta Canada
http://www.musselwhite.com http://canadianpianopage.com/calgary
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