Phillip Ford wrote: > Maybe we have finally discovered the problem. Maybe there was a communication > problem between the design and production departments. That rock hard > material was supposed to go into the plates, not the hammers. They didn't > discover it until the pianos were on the market, and then they had to pretend > that that's what they intended all along. > > Phil F Which brings us to the question of who's responsible for this moneumental muckup. Or perhaps its... what was responsible. Production departments have nortoriously used the "old guys" in key positions... you know... the "old belly master", the "old plate tuner", the "old stringing guy", and of course the "old voicer guy". All well into their 70's in order to be naturally given the kind of respect old guys get. Now since the Pre Petrified Rock Hard Felt syndrom started popping up around the late 70,'s early 80's... you know about the time we didnt have as much use for areospace and weapons engineers as we did in the previous decade.... there was this surplus of young brilliant propeller hatted bright eyes that had just, amoung other highly creative and ingenious inventions, come up with this Pre Petrified stuff. It LOOKED like felt to the old guys... who not knowing what on earth to do with the stuff, and not being able to believe anyone could SERIOUSLY propose using felt as a plate material.... (having really belonged to the previous century, and besides... it was the wrong colour) just decided to make hammers out of it. Hindsight tells us of course they could have just as well used cast iron for hammers... but hey... they didnt know at the time. I suppose we should be able to forgive them. Well... thats one theory anyways.. :) -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC