1969 Steinway L CBS?

[Kdivad@AOL.COM]

In a message dated Sat, 11 May 2002  8:33:55 AM Eastern Daylight Time, "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com> writes:

>Comments below:
>
>Terry Farrell
>
>----- Original Message -----
>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:
>>
>> > 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
>>
>> 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
>>


As a technician who works on a lot of Steinways I find it amazing that we can not even discuss the problems at Steinway without it being called condemnation or bashing. I like Steinways but they are not my master, if there are problems that a lot of us have run into why not discuss them.  They become hard to discuss when as soon as you bring one up the Steinway posse jumps all over you.  As Terry stated he has much respect for Steinway, which shows the pressure to preface our criticisms.  We discuss the problems of a lot of piano manufacturers but none of them bring up the defenses like Steinway, though Yamaha is building momentum (not including grey pianos). Most of the posse members will choose to ignore or dismiss the facts behind some of Steinway criticisms.

David Koelzer
DFW