The two Rons exchanged... > >> I suppose much reasoning will depend on a company's motive for >> manufacturing pianos in the first place. Is the primary goal the >> creation of a first rate piano, or is it that of a marketing company >> who finds itself compelled to manufacture pianos to satisfy the >> demand created by the brochures and spin? This can be an interesting >> question. > > > This is a VERY interesting question, and one that will be by "virtue" > of not being able to get real answers from manufacturers, forever > speculative. We can only extrapolate from what we think we can see in > the product, against what we think we know at the moment. Hopefully, > what we think we know will expand with time and experience, making our > speculative evaluations of what we see in existing pianos closer to > what the designer and manufacturer intended to produce with that feature. > > Ron N > I quite agree that this kind of question is interesting. I used to get into a similar discussion about music in general with my older brother. It was his contention that all music was commercial oriented, and that the real point, the real motivation for composing, playing, etc. all music was primarilly money. I dissagreed quite a bit, and maintained that one could usually hear just by the character of the music whether the motivation behind it was commercial, or something more on the idealistic side of existance. Of course.... in the real world one does actually need to make a living of some sort and by some means... so the <<answers>> to such kinds of questions are never either/or... black and white.. one extreme or the other. Its nearly always some degree of balancing the one against the other. The same can be said of grand pianos I would suppose. In the case of the manufacturer in question above, I see no reason to doubt in any sense their committment to making the finest instrument they believe they can. That doesnt mean they dont have their realities to live with mind you. But with the parameters of what "surviving in a buisness world" allows them they have consistantly provided a quality product in quantities that allow them to remain viable in the piano making game for a very very long time. There are some pretty heavy conflicting interests wrapped up in all that, and many of those are imposed upon the manufacturer regardless of their wants. In the end, you find yourself in as much a philosophical discussion as anything else. When it comes to the point about a given manufacturer revealing the reasonings behind each and all.... any for that matter, design issue.... well I dont really know about others, but given the world around me I see no real surprise in any company keeping quite about most such things. Seems like thats what most manufacturers are doing with most of what they do anyways. So that bit I just let lie. Cheers RicB
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