Hi folks I ran into a Steinway K serial # 212072 looks like anno 1920 or something. I had done some work on this a couple years back, reshaping the hammers, cleaning the action up... tuning.. just basics and they wanted me to come tune it again. I was suprised at how well the darn thing was still in tune, tho it had dropped to 436 at A3. Not bad considering what a pitch raise it had recieved a couple years ago. However... the point is... and this goes to our recent discussion on sustain times and the ever ongoing debate about compression crowned boards and the rest of that...., This old lady had an A5 sustain of just about 10 seconds. A6 was at about 4. The piano overall had a very pleasant sound, tho it could have been voiced a bit rounder. Perhaps next time.... :) The only real complaint soundwise was perhaps a rather massy sounding low bass. Not quite tubby or deadish... hard to explain that sound tho I have heard it on many M's. Certainly not a well defined tone down there. But I was struck by and large how such a piano having lived the life this obviously must have, could remain in such fine acoustic shape. It was sold in Christiana... Oslo (before 1925), transported across the country (probably some 40 years ago according to the present owners, and moved around several times. Our climate here in Norway ranges from around 75 % rh in the summer to around 20 - 25 % in the winter. Not the worst of extremes. But then winters here in years gone by houses were heated by wood or coke stoves, which further dried out the already dry winter air. Actually, compared to an awfull lot of brand new instruments I hear... this old lady sounded really nice indeed. RicB -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html
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