Steinway M

[JIMRPT@aol.com]

Tom;
 I am coming in late on this but............you have received many excellent 
responses, vis a vis your question, .......perhaps a little different view 
might be helpful..........
 We 'all' tend to be a trifle anal retentative on those aspects of 
design/manufacture that pique our interest and if you were to put all those 'a/r' areas 
together on any piano...none would be fit to play or purchase! :-)
 The model 'M' is not immune to this syndrome and in fact is probably more 
likely to be overexposed because we all can see soooo much potential in the 
basic design that does not always show up in the finished product.
 Yeah the touch can be bad, killeroctaves can suck, the break can be 
horrendous, the sustain can be nonexistant, etc..etc.... but doe the "particular" 'M' 
in question have any of these p[roblems when you see and evaluate it? That is 
the question you must answer for a customer.........after all they are asking 
about that particular instrument not a discussion of all the flaws in design 
of the marque and model.....don't you think?

 Pianos are rather like 1/4 inch drills of which millions are sold each year. 
These drills are sold because somebody wants a round hole and not because of 
better design......with pianos, people want good sounding music and for the 
most part could care less about the particular design problems in a given 
instrument....as long as the customer likes the looks, feel and sound of the piano 
the customer will like that piano.........   'If' a particualr instrument 
displays inadequacies, of the design type, than it would be reasonable to discuss 
those faults associated with 'that' piano without spreading the brush broadly 
over the entire line/model series.

 Our job is to help the customer find a 'single' good piano and not needfully 
to warn them against any particular thingee...rather thingees to watch for in 
general.... but this is just my view and others have already shared their 
view which are well taken also.
Jim Bryant (FL)