Grotrian lost it's singing tone

[Greg Newell]

Greetings list,
         I wonder if some or you wouldn't care to share your insight about 
a weird issue I am having with a 7' Grotrian. Some time ago i asked this 
list if money were not much of an issue which piano of this size would you 
be most likely to buy. Many good responses came to that query and the 
church's music director finally purchased 2 pianos. The purchases were the 
aforementioned Grotrian and a 7' Pleyel. The Pleyel found it's home in the 
choir room and the Grotrian is on stage in the sanctuary of this rather 
large old church. The sanctuary has e x t r e m e l y high ceilings.
           Since the delivery of this piano the music director and I have 
been going round and round trying to pin point and even find the correct 
words to describe something strange which the music director calls a loss 
of it's singing tone. I think that the best way he recently described it to 
me was an initial strong attack but an immediate drop in power with a less 
than original sustain. A thorough examination of the piano found no problem 
with a loss of crown or downbearing. There was no problem with the strings 
regarding false beats or the like. The voicing was even and untouched from 
the dealer prep it had received. In the space of 3 days after delivery the 
character of the instrument changed. The one oddity we found after some 
poking around one day was that after attaching a piece of wire to 2 strings 
of a unison, ala the patented staple technology, the sound was noticeably 
improved. While attaching the wire (temporarily) knocked both strings out 
of tune, they did not exibit the lack of power that is evident without the 
"staple".
         I'd be interested to hear about any observations you all might 
have had with freshly delivered instruments exhibiting a loss of "singing 
tone" and what you have done about it. I'd also be interested to hear what 
experience along these lines that you may have had with the patented staple 
technology. The music director is getting no response from his recent email 
to Grotrian although others prior to this were answered almost immediately. 
It would be great to have a replacement piano according to him but what if 
the new one exhibits the same problems says I. The relative pitch in a 
drafty but otherwise temperature constant hall is firm but the unisons 
don't stay all that well. I usually don't have problems with stability but 
this one is tough. It seems that the dealers tech, who was called out to 
try and search out the problem too, also had trouble with pitch stability 
as I went there days later and the unisons were not that clear. Thoughts?



Greg Newell

Greg's piano Forté
mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net