Pianotech

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I saw the product information when I logged on to Jahn's site today.

You must log into your account with Jahn to view prices (in Euros), and availability, and to make a purchase. 

I saw the product information when I logged on to Jahn's site today.

You must log into your account with Jahn to view prices (in Euros), and availability, and to make a purchase. 

I saw the product information when I logged on to Jahn's site today.

You must log into your account with Jahn to view prices (in Euros), and availability, and to make a purchase. 

They were originally written in Norwegian.  Translated into English,  German,  French,  and Russian.  No Spanish version.  Real

dearth of books in spanish.

They were originally written in Norwegian.  Translated into English,  German,  French,  and Russian.  No Spanish version.  Real

dearth of books in spanish.

I didn't know David Rubenstein wrote a book. Do you know the title and if it's available? (Simple google search of David Rubenstein Piano Book turned up zilch.)

They were originally written in Norwegian.  Translated into English,  German,  French,  and Russian.  No Spanish version.  Real

dearth of books in spanish.

I didn't know David Rubenstein wrote a book. Do you know the title and if it's available? (Simple google search of David Rubenstein Piano Book turned up zilch.)

They were originally written in Norwegian.  Translated into English,  German,  French,  and Russian.  No Spanish version.  Real

dearth of books in spanish.

David Rubenstein is indeed an actual person. He makes soundboards and keys, and has designed and constructed two pianos of his own. He regularly collaborates with the likes of Del Fandrich and other luminaries of our profession, and has written a book about piano making which a few of us have been fortunate enough to be able to read. However, I don't believe the book has been published. Like Chris, I found David's book to be highly informative and exceedingly well written.

Best,

Alan 

I didn't know David Rubenstein wrote a book. Do you know the title and if it's available? (Simple google search of David Rubenstein Piano Book turned up zilch.)

They were originally written in Norwegian.  Translated into English,  German,  French,  and Russian.  No Spanish version.  Real

dearth of books in spanish.

David Rubenstein is indeed an actual person. He makes soundboards and keys, and has designed and constructed two pianos of his own. He regularly collaborates with the likes of Del Fandrich and other luminaries of our profession, and has written a book about piano making which a few of us have been fortunate enough to be able to read. However, I don't believe the book has been published. Like Chris, I found David's book to be highly informative and exceedingly well written.

Best,

Alan 

I didn't know David Rubenstein wrote a book. Do you know the title and if it's available? (Simple google search of David Rubenstein Piano Book turned up zilch.)

They were originally written in Norwegian.  Translated into English,  German,  French,  and Russian.  No Spanish version.  Real

dearth of books in spanish.

David Rubenstein is indeed an actual person. He makes soundboards and keys, and has designed and constructed two pianos of his own. He regularly collaborates with the likes of Del Fandrich and other luminaries of our profession, and has written a book about piano making which a few of us have been fortunate enough to be able to read. However, I don't believe the book has been published. Like Chris, I found David's book to be highly informative and exceedingly well written.

Best,

Alan 

I didn't know David Rubenstein wrote a book. Do you know the title and if it's available? (Simple google search of David Rubenstein Piano Book turned up zilch.)

They were originally written in Norwegian.  Translated into English,  German,  French,  and Russian.  No Spanish version.  Real

dearth of books in spanish.

David Rubenstein is indeed an actual person. He makes soundboards and keys, and has designed and constructed two pianos of his own. He regularly collaborates with the likes of Del Fandrich and other luminaries of our profession, and has written a book about piano making which a few of us have been fortunate enough to be able to read. However, I don't believe the book has been published. Like Chris, I found David's book to be highly informative and exceedingly well written.

Best,

Alan 

I didn't know David Rubenstein wrote a book. Do you know the title and if it's available? (Simple google search of David Rubenstein Piano Book turned up zilch.)

They were originally written in Norwegian.  Translated into English,  German,  French,  and Russian.  No Spanish version.  Real

dearth of books in spanish.

Hi Dave,

I figured that you knew who David Rubenstein is, but was concerned that other followers of this list may not. The last thing I would want to do would be to push for a less humorous world! Apologies if my post came across that way.

Best,

Alan

David Rubenstein is indeed an actual person. He makes soundboards and keys, and has designed and constructed two pianos of his own. He regularly collaborates with the likes of Del Fandrich and other luminaries of our profession, and has written a book about piano making which a few of us have been fortunate enough to be able to read. However, I don't believe the book has been published. Like Chris, I found David's book to be highly informative and exceedingly well written.

Best,

Alan 

I didn't know David Rubenstein wrote a book. Do you know the title and if it's available? (Simple google search of David Rubenstein Piano Book turned up zilch.)

They were originally written in Norwegian.  Translated into English,  German,  French,  and Russian.  No Spanish version.  Real

dearth of books in spanish.

Hi Dave,

I figured that you knew who David Rubenstein is, but was concerned that other followers of this list may not. The last thing I would want to do would be to push for a less humorous world! Apologies if my post came across that way.

Best,

Alan

David Rubenstein is indeed an actual person. He makes soundboards and keys, and has designed and constructed two pianos of his own. He regularly collaborates with the likes of Del Fandrich and other luminaries of our profession, and has written a book about piano making which a few of us have been fortunate enough to be able to read. However, I don't believe the book has been published. Like Chris, I found David's book to be highly informative and exceedingly well written.

Best,

Alan 

I didn't know David Rubenstein wrote a book. Do you know the title and if it's available? (Simple google search of David Rubenstein Piano Book turned up zilch.)

They were originally written in Norwegian.  Translated into English,  German,  French,  and Russian.  No Spanish version.  Real

dearth of books in spanish.

Hi Dave,

I figured that you knew who David Rubenstein is, but was concerned that other followers of this list may not. The last thing I would want to do would be to push for a less humorous world! Apologies if my post came across that way.

Best,

Alan

David Rubenstein is indeed an actual person. He makes soundboards and keys, and has designed and constructed two pianos of his own. He regularly collaborates with the likes of Del Fandrich and other luminaries of our profession, and has written a book about piano making which a few of us have been fortunate enough to be able to read. However, I don't believe the book has been published. Like Chris, I found David's book to be highly informative and exceedingly well written.

Best,

Alan 

I didn't know David Rubenstein wrote a book. Do you know the title and if it's available? (Simple google search of David Rubenstein Piano Book turned up zilch.)

They were originally written in Norwegian.  Translated into English,  German,  French,  and Russian.  No Spanish version.  Real

dearth of books in spanish.

https://pianomedia.se/carl-johan-forss/about-the-author/

I would not waste my money on the Forss repair/rebuilding book.  I had a very close look at it years ago when it first came out.

First off the information is extremely dated and very limited. It is as if an old piano rebuilder from the 1960s had locked himself into a room and had written down all he knows about pianos.  And I think that is exactly how this book came to be. Very little external research, if any. Outdated methods. For example, one two page spread (!) explains in horrific detail, with a number of photos, how you can take an action flange which has broken, and glue it back together.  Another words, spend half an hour to repair a $1.50 part. 

Secondly, the English translation is absolutely terrible. It was done by someone with perhaps a "working knowledge" of the language, but that person was not a translator.  And possibly not a technician (?) Plus, it is obvious that the text was not edited at all. None. The original translator even conceded this himself in the old Pianotech Email list back about 10 years ago. He said it was a very poor translation and that he regretted doing it, if I remember correctly.  It is still in the Pianotech archives if you want to dig to find it. Someone had saved all the posts to their website.

The Forss book costs 72 Euros. Add shipping from Jahn and it will probably end up being over $100 US. For that money you can get two American books which are both individually much better than the Swede's.

If Forss' other books are anything like this one, I would give them all a wide berth. 

Sorry for the scathing review - I feel it is important to warn people before they spend a lot of money with high expectations. You won't find new or cutting edge European techniques here.

https://pianomedia.se/carl-johan-forss/about-the-author/

Jurgen-

Thank you for this clear comment.

My impression of the Forss tuning book was similar to yours of the repair book. 1960s vintage.

I would not waste my money on the Forss repair/rebuilding book.  I had a very close look at it years ago when it first came out.

First off the information is extremely dated and very limited. It is as if an old piano rebuilder from the 1960s had locked himself into a room and had written down all he knows about pianos.  And I think that is exactly how this book came to be. Very little external research, if any. Outdated methods. For example, one two page spread (!) explains in horrific detail, with a number of photos, how you can take an action flange which has broken, and glue it back together.  Another words, spend half an hour to repair a $1.50 part. 

Secondly, the English translation is absolutely terrible. It was done by someone with perhaps a "working knowledge" of the language, but that person was not a translator.  And possibly not a technician (?) Plus, it is obvious that the text was not edited at all. None. The original translator even conceded this himself in the old Pianotech Email list back about 10 years ago. He said it was a very poor translation and that he regretted doing it, if I remember correctly.  It is still in the Pianotech archives if you want to dig to find it. Someone had saved all the posts to their website.

The Forss book costs 72 Euros. Add shipping from Jahn and it will probably end up being over $100 US. For that money you can get two American books which are both individually much better than the Swede's.

If Forss' other books are anything like this one, I would give them all a wide berth. 

Sorry for the scathing review - I feel it is important to warn people before they spend a lot of money with high expectations. You won't find new or cutting edge European techniques here.

https://pianomedia.se/carl-johan-forss/about-the-author/

There is one thing I would like to add: I am dismayed that these books have been translated into Russian, Spanish and other languages. There is a dearth of good quality information in some other languages - we English speakers have no realization of how blessed we are to have the books of Brady, Igrec, Reblitz and many, many others to choose from.
Sadly, the Forss books with their outdated content, may well now become the go-to sources for non-English speaking piano technicians around the world.

There would have been so many books much more worthy of translation than these. But it is difficult to find  publishers for such undertakings. And the German publisher of these tomes had no clue about the low value of the content.
I actually had that conversation with them, after they sent me the book for review. But by then it was already too late - the books were already in print.

Jurgen-

Thank you for this clear comment.

My impression of the Forss tuning book was similar to yours of the repair book. 1960s vintage.

I would not waste my money on the Forss repair/rebuilding book.  I had a very close look at it years ago when it first came out.

First off the information is extremely dated and very limited. It is as if an old piano rebuilder from the 1960s had locked himself into a room and had written down all he knows about pianos.  And I think that is exactly how this book came to be. Very little external research, if any. Outdated methods. For example, one two page spread (!) explains in horrific detail, with a number of photos, how you can take an action flange which has broken, and glue it back together.  Another words, spend half an hour to repair a $1.50 part. 

Secondly, the English translation is absolutely terrible. It was done by someone with perhaps a "working knowledge" of the language, but that person was not a translator.  And possibly not a technician (?) Plus, it is obvious that the text was not edited at all. None. The original translator even conceded this himself in the old Pianotech Email list back about 10 years ago. He said it was a very poor translation and that he regretted doing it, if I remember correctly.  It is still in the Pianotech archives if you want to dig to find it. Someone had saved all the posts to their website.

The Forss book costs 72 Euros. Add shipping from Jahn and it will probably end up being over $100 US. For that money you can get two American books which are both individually much better than the Swede's.

If Forss' other books are anything like this one, I would give them all a wide berth. 

Sorry for the scathing review - I feel it is important to warn people before they spend a lot of money with high expectations. You won't find new or cutting edge European techniques here.

https://pianomedia.se/carl-johan-forss/about-the-author/