Pianotech Digest, Vol 1301, Issue 134

[Ron Nossaman]

> Actually what you were accused of is refusing to take
> seriously the objections of those of us who actually like
> the action-mounted sostenuto. When you have to make a quick
> damper repair in a rush (like in concert situations or in
> some professional/institutional settings) - that belly
> mounted sostenoto really does get in the way and takes up
> time one might not have...But you highandedly dismissed
> those objections because - from your perspective - it is an
> improvement. Which is what the rest of my post was about.
> (For your information, it takes me about as much time to
> regulate an action mounted sostenuto as a belly mounted one
> - so  I don't need your "improved" sostenuto - and it does
> get in my way when I have to work on the Hamburg Steinway
> dampers. Or Yamaha or any of the others).

Highhandedly dismissed, huh? Certainly not without due process 
of reality processing. I don't really care one way or the 
other that you don't like the idea of belly mounted 
sostenutos, but I do object to abuse because I don't subscribe 
to your ideas.


> If you look at it from another perspective, how often does
> one need to regulate a sostenuto vs. how often would one
> need to get to the damper underlevers for a, say, action
> center problem (especially in some environments?) What
> would be a greater priority for an institutional
> technician? 

I personally haven't found it to be a real problem getting 
past the sostenuto for damper service problems, but then I 
don't do a lot of panic concert patch work. In that lone 
instance, I can see an occasional potential advantage.


>As a matter of fact, according to Eric
> Schandall Steinway NY has been considering the idea of
> moving the sostenuto to the belly - and it always meets
> with fierce opposition from the concert technicians. They
> dread the day that Steinway succumbs to pressure from
> technicians who won't learn how to regulate an action
> mounted sostenuto (which is very simple - once you learn
> how - no harder than the belly-mounted kind ). 

I'm quite able to adjust the action mounted sostenuto, despite 
your assumption to the contrary. I just question the need for 
it in the vast majority of venues.


>There are
> issues to discuss here, and priorities to be balanced - so
> there is no reason to dismiss those who disagree with you
> as those who "accept the status quo of the Steinway
> sostenuto system". There are good reasons for maintaining
> them, from some perspectives.

Oh, you want perspective? How many Steinways are in concert 
situations in institutions, as opposed to those in less 
critical and less time constrained use in educational 
institutions, churches, and homes? So what would be the 
realistic usage percentage justification for the concert 
access story? Also, if the action mounted sostenutos are kept 
for the concert techs, why are they on the Ms, the Os, the Ls? 
Are there many high pressure concert venues using Ms these 
days? Like most things Steinway, there seems to be a whole lot 
more emotional froth generated, than rational connections.


>> And being ignorant of the give and take of the formal
>> educational process, having acquired my apparently sub
>> standard education outside an institutional setting?
> 
> No. Just a lack of respect for approaches other than your
> own...

You mean like you're showing me?


>> And being myopic in my inability to understand the value
>> of knowledge acquired from others in a give and take
>> instructor/student setting?
> 
> I think your original message reeks of that attitude -
> where you dismiss knowledge acquired in institutional
> settings in a rather jaundiced peroration... I took it as
> an attack on all those who attempt to teach and learn in
> that manner - and tried to give you a taste of your own
> medicine. How does it feel to be painted with a broad
> brush?

I most typically am, by those that don't know me and make 
emotionally based snap judgments from something they believe I 
said.


> That remark was aimed not at you personally - but at the
> customary way in which an awful lot of technicians gain
> their knowledge. Perhaps you only screwed up pianos for a
> few months. Or perhaps you got it right on the first try -
> I mean you are a pretty smart guy...  Or did someone show
> you how?

You're joking, right? EVERYBODY showed me how, as well as how 
not. Are you actually under the delusion that everyone who 
didn't have institutional training from the beginning is 
operating in a total vacuum?

You do seem to be of the impression that my opinions and ideas 
of how things work come to me in dreams, and I go into the 
world to shout it into compliance with my "vision". Not so. My 
current and ever changing opinion set is a distillation of 
ideas I've accumulated everywhere through the years, from 
everyone. Even from you, since I don't consider the validity 
of information to be dependent on it's source.
Ron N