1969 Steinway L CBS?

[Farrell]

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Comments below:

Terry Farrell
 =20
----- Original Message -----=20
From: "Richard Brekne" <Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 11, 2002 6:13 AM
Subject: Re: 1969 Steinway L CBS?


> Farrell wrote:
>=20
> > I have yet to run into a brand Y piano that regulates its own =
dampers!
> > From the standpoint of a technician, I am not crabbing about brand =
X.
> > I am simply stating a general observation regarding how they hold up
> > over the years compared to some other pianos, most notably brand Y.
> > From the standpoint of the consumer, having purchased a new brand X
> > vertical before getting into this field, I am indeed crabbing. And I
> > got something to crab about!   ;-0 With good intent throughout, =
Terry
> > Farrell
>=20
> Hmmm... so you owned a Steinway upright that went bad.... for reasons
> not completely understood to us others

Yes, I bought a new 1098 about five years ago. I don't think "went bad" =
is correct. If it "went bad", it occurred before Steinway sold it to me. =
IMHO, it was made bad (1/4" reverse crown with lots of downbearing?).

> ... you had some bad experience in
> dealing with their service department as well ?? (seem to remember you
> saying something about this a while back.. am I wrong ?)

IMHO, very bad, rude ("you'll get used to that dinging noise"), =
unsatisfactory (to put it mildly). Yes, this has been addressed in the =
past.

> And from this
> and from your experience base you feel justified in condemning what =
the
> vast majority of pianists clearly recognize as the best sounding and
> playing instrument available for purchase these past 120 years or so.

This aspect of this thread started out addressing vertical pianos from =
the 1950s, 60s and 70s. I am only speaking of vertical pianos. MHO is =
based in part on my 1098 that had serious defects and they were =
unwilling to fix properly, but mostly MHO is based on the group of maybe =
20 or 30 Steinway verticals that I have run across over the past few =
years while servicing pianos. Almost every one (and I can't recall one =
that didn't) had some portion (some, multiple items) of a combination of =
cracked bridges, lots of excessive string noise, poor hammer alignment =
(and other action components), way out of regulation, poor string =
terminations, poorly performing dampers - the type of things that one =
sees while tuning and lead one to feel that the piano is quite worn out =
for its age. Yamaha verticals that I see from this era are mostly in =
very good condition, with few if any of the aforementioned problems, or =
at least to a significantly less degree.

Again, I am strictly speaking to my own observations. Who knows, maybe =
the brand Y are in such good condition because they are miserable to =
play and sound bad so no one plays them, while brand X sounds so nice =
and plays great so that everyone plays it day and night. I don't know =
that to be the case though.

Except for the few specific and well documented problems some Steinway =
grand pianos exhibit (verdigris, Teflon action centers, poor action =
geometry), I have much respect for their grand pianos.

> I know people who CHOOSE not to buy a BMW..... not because they dont
> think of it as a good car... but because its tempermental and needs =
lots
> of looking after.  Then I also know people who think BMW's are lousy
> cars..... because they are tempermental....

Well, I guess if you want a piano that is often not quite working well, =
and that has ".....faults in each one that can be discovered and =
cherished over the years", then go for it!   :-)

Again, all this seems to be clear from my observations based on a few =
tens of pianos. I'm not a statistician. Perhaps that is not enough of a =
sampling. If not, ignore everything I've said. You may choose that route =
anyway!   ;-)

Terry Farrell

> --
> Richard Brekne
> RPT, N.P.T.F.
> Bergen, Norway
> mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
> http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html
>=20
> 
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