Ed,
My post was aimed at the attitude that one’s own opinion is the only one with any validity, which appears to be your attitude. I happen to think several of your ideas have merit and that others don’t, or that, at any rate, they are unproven. Each of us bases our opinions on our own experience. Which is right?
When it comes to capo terminations, there are a variety of positions on just how hard and how sharp the V should be, and a variety of implementations by manufacturers. That’s the reality in the marketplace. I will ask your directly, as I did indirectly in my last post, does any manufacturer meet your criteria? To be clear, I am talking about what you have described repeatedly: soft (unhardened) and filed to as sharp a point as is possible, so that the strings settle into that metal. Can you name a manufacturer that does that?
If not, then why answer this query about selecting a Steinway in the Steinway showroom the way you did? As I said (knowing that Steinway, for one, doesn’t do it that way), if anyone wants that spec, the thing to do is to have a used instrument remanufactured. (One could purchase a new one and have the top sections restrung after having the capo filed, but why go to that extra expense?)
There are lots of very strongly held opinions in our field, having to do with soundboards (compression vs. rib crowned, for instance), hammers (lacquered vs. unlacquered, hard vs. soft pressed), appropriate key weighting and action ratios, felt vs. hard action bushings, cross strung vs. straight strung, positive down bearing vs. negative down bearing vs zero down bearing, pinned bridges vs. bridge agraffes of one or another design, drier vs. wetter damping: name the factor, and there are passionately held positions.
As far as I am concerned, this is a good thing. It means the piano industry and the piano technician profession are not completely ossified. I think variety is a good thing, and as part of that philosophy I have used my position as head piano technician to assemble a set of piano major grands that includes two Shigeru Kawai SK-2s, a Schimmel C189, a Mason & Hamlin BB, a Steinway O, a Steinway M, and a Yamaha C2. That means our piano students have the opportunity to experience a fairly broad range of action response, tone color, etc. As a pianist, that is an opportunity I value greatly, as it allows one to grow artistically. Playing on a different instrument opens up different possibilities of expression, and often when I sit at an unfamiliar piano, I suddenly hear a piece in a new light.
That’s my firmly held opinion: there are many possibilities, and none that is the only and best one. I have no problem if others disagree with me.
Fred Sturm
fssturm@comcast.netwww.artoftuning.comhttp://fredsturm.net"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire." -Gustav Mahler
Original Message------
When I published my book; The Educated Piano, Steinway company bought seven copies. When I ran into Michael Mohr at the next convention he said; "after I read your part on the capo bar I went and pulled all the different specifications we have had for Capo bars over the years. I found one exactly like you are advocating."
If we Technicians are to represent our clients best interests it behooves us to set standards. Those of you who attempt to marginalize me by posturing my position as a lone wolf in the wilderness only betray your own lack of knowledge, imagination and unprofessional attitude. It does not look good on any of you. If you disrespect me by dismissing what I say without testing yourself you show a grandly incompetent attitude towards your fellow professionals.
Technicians are far better judges of how pianos respond to use over time than any manufacturer can be. I am as well situated in this position as anyone else in the world that I know of that digs as deep into pianos over as long a time as I have to judge serviceability.
If the test I proposed for V-bar hardness was objected to by a seller of a piano, that should tell you something right there. If you are implying my wanting to test like this is damaging to the piano, you are wrong.
Are you aware Kawai has done testing on V-bar shape and many of their new pianos have V-bars much like I have been advocating since the late 1970's? Are you aware I still service the first piano I shaped the V-bar to a V-shape and it has been used regularly for over forty years with no problems yet?
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Edward McMorrow
Edmonds WA
425-299-3431
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