Hello Sarah, List, Your post brings us to one of the essential points of running a manufacturing business. Here is my viewpoint: The spinet and the concert grand are both referred to as "piano"; clearly, we are using the same word for two products that are worlds apart. The spinet market is huge. The concert grand market is small. If a business owner can decide which market to serve, it's easier to define the appropriate strategy regarding commercial success. The problem often arises when a company corners itself, and has to cover the largest possible market (including the extreme ends) because their business is based on significant manufacturing volume requirements. Worse yet, marketing my decide that the spinet line might sell "much better" if only there were also a 9 foot grand with the same name on the fall board. I think that a modern flat strung grand would be worth looking into. I can only speculate, but my thinking is that the main advantage of the overstrung layout has to do with a more central placement (away from the rim) of the bottom notes on the bass bridge. The other way to give the soundboard mobility in the low bass is to float it, and that may (or may not) have its own problems. Most pianos have a slight angle between the spine and the keyboard and I have to think that the technical benefit of that also has to do with the same problem - moving the bottom of the bass bridge a little further away from the rim. Now, if one came up with a rim shape that is aesthetically pleasing to our traditional eyes, and allows for ample room between the bass bridge and the rim, the flat strung idea may be quite workable. Part two of the problem is marketing. It's one thing to market an unusual instrument design to the spinet buyers, and another to sell such a thing for $200000. There is a significant number of people who have a lot of money and will gladly spend it as long as they acquire some bragging rights with the purchase. So, if a brave soul should decide to build the best piano regardless of what is traditional, with some top notch marketing mystique, they could pull off a low volume/high price boutique strategy. We all know that it is possible for a charismatic business owner to break into the top end of the market in a few years - Fazioli has demonstrated that. Unfortunately, the qualities that make a great engineer are rarely the ones that make a great marketer. I do ask myself why someone would go through the significant trouble of designing a much more complicated (overstrung) piano if they didn't feel constrained in some way by the flat strung design. Something was on Mr. Steinway's mind, but we may never know for sure what exactly it was. Stephen's post regarding wire thickness is an example of what may very well have been at work. Vladan __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
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