Real Customizing of a piano

[Fenton Murray]

>Is it still a Steinway after making these changes? I certainly hope not, or 
>we've wasted considerable time and money trying to make them better.
Ouch! Ron, your point is very well made, and it is always a pleasure to read 
your great sarcasm and wit. I love many of the 'other' brands of pianos, I'm 
a huge fan of Mehlins and Webers and Conovers and a huge PA Stark upright I 
know of and Bechwith, and Decker and Everett, and on and on. I'm not just 
bowing down to the Steinway name here, well maybe I am, it's just that there 
is a very distinct Steinway sound that seems unique to me that does not 
disappear regardless of what is changed on the piano, it also does not seem 
to appear in other pianos regardless of re-design efforts.
That being said, I do have an extra S&S decal, and , well, it might be worth 
at least trying one on an old Kurtzman.
Fenton
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Nossaman" <rnossaman at cox.net>
To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 05, 2008 8:29 AM
Subject: Re: Real Customizing of a piano


>
>
>>   Sooo, what makes a Steinway sound like a Steinway?
>
> What David Love said, most particularly the fall board decal.
>
>
>>Did it Usta-B a Steinway, or is it still? I think that it still very much 
>>is, more of the original timbre and tone remains than is replaced.
>> Even the rim and plate are changed, what with treble dams and aliquot and 
>> duplex mods, plate mounting, etc, etc. It seems that the design of 
>> everything can be changed, and we still have the wonderful Steinway.
>
> This is precisely why the decal is so important. These modifications are 
> done to any piano to improve it's sound and eliminate as many design 
> problems as we can. The result is a cleaner richer sound. Since the 
> occasional Steinway through the years has been able to produce a lovely 
> rich sound, compared to the average piano, good tone is automatically and 
> forevermore connected with the hallowed name. With the right fall board 
> decal in place, good piano tone is far more likely to be perceived than 
> without it, however wonderful the instrument of less than Royal blood 
> sounds, or however pitiful the Steinway sounds. That's an unfortunate fact 
> that has been demonstrated many times. Carefully reproducing the low bass 
> with the 0.067" core wire and utter lack of fundamental, the painfully 
> apparent bass tenor crossover, with low tenor honk, the attack distortion 
> in the killer octave, which charmingly migrates up and down scale with 
> seasonal changes, the squalling tuned front duplex, and the ever popular 
> high treble dink, will get you the authentic Steinway sound. Changing a 
> few things to produce a low bass with some fundamental, an aurally 
> transparent crossover without honk, a clean clear killer octave with no 
> duplex noises, and a treble with a couple of seconds or more of ring time 
> will also get you the vastly different authentic Steinway sound, but only 
> with the decal. A very similar tone quality in a piano lacking this decal 
> won't.
>
> Is it still a Steinway after making these changes? I certainly hope not, 
> or we've wasted considerable time and money trying to make them better.
>
> Ron N
>
>