While with Yamaha in the 90′s I purchased a Yamaha concert grand…a CFIII 51GX to be precise. GX designates an experimental model and 51 designates the series. The 51 was a design experiment that incorporated a number of design features of a popular concert grand made by a famous maker & Sons. These features included tubular metal action rails and a separate plate cross brace among others. Thank heaven the damper underlevers had spoons and the plate height was set evenly and correctly meaning the action could be regulated to a very high level. It also did not sound at all like the other makers piano. This one had a colorful and sweet sound, not big and brash as one might expect. The 51GX represented a path not taken by Yamaha. The CFIIIS that was introduced grew out of the 54GX series. In fact, I don’t think the 51 was ever intended as an actual production path.

I really loved this piano. It was my first REAL piano and having a concert grand at home, when one was only a mediocre player at best, proved that I really was IN the industry. I went a number of years without playing with any degree of dedication, but did get back into it recently and really loved the power, range, scope and the oh-my-god  bass of that piano.

But, things change. I had a chance to acquire another really beautiful piano (more on that later) and decided to sell my Yamaha. It was purchased by a serious pianist in the Washington DC area and I am happy to see it off to a happy home.

I did get attached to that instrument. It was truly a friend on a number of levels. Saying goodbye, even for good reasons,  is hard.

I’ve had some experience with both laws. Once in the 80′s when a container of new Bosendorfer pianos was held up due to a CITES issue with keyboards and recently with the paperwork required by the Lacey Act to import pianos into the US.

The interesting part is an article in the November 2011 issue of the Piano Technicians Journal (rush out to your newstands…) written by Del Fandrich which quotes court papers as follows:  “Gibson sourced its unfinished wood in the form of blanks from Nagel (in Germany) which obtained it exclusively from Roger Thunam (a supplier in Madagascar). The filing goes on to state: “…Roger Thunam is one of thirteen known traffickers in illegally harvested Madagascar timbers”.

Del goes on to elaborate on the second raid which targeted ebony sourced from India which was 10mm thick, 4 mm over India’s legal limit of 6mm.

Why does this matter to piano makers? The primary way is through keyboards. Ivory is essentially gone as a white keytop material, but real ebony wood for sharps is still greatly preferred. In addition rosewood is a highly desirable veneer for the case, with other woods like mahogany in (relatively) high demand. Spruce does not seem to be on anybody’s endangered list, thankfully.

All in all a great article that goes into much greater depth than the light surface coverage by other industry publications.

Retail Service means tuning and repair calls coming from customers who call Steinway asking for service. It also means initial service calls on new pianos sold by Steinway Hall. I don’t know the details but I understand that this used to be a fairly active  with something like 6 full time technicians.

This is absolutely NOT meant to imply that service standards have been lowered. There are a number of excellent technicians in NYC and just working for Steinway does not mean one is any better.  It is more interesting in that it implies either a change of strategy or cost cutting with my guess being cost cutting. Somebody may have decided that any additional cost of having an in-house service department, whether it was $100,000 a year or $10, was too much and chose to just get rid of it.

I’ve worked in and managed a number of piano service departments, both for manufacturers and retail. Service can be a huge asset or annoying drain, depending on how it is managed.

MJ has to be the most completely talented entertainer of the last 50 years. No, not the best singer, but a complete being of entertainment. To see the passion that he brings, the complete involvement and mastery is inspiring as well as riveting. I’m getting goose bumps watching him flawlessly execute complex dance moves with an ease and facility that is astonishing.

Yes I’m a fan, but I’m biased. This guy is a complete utter professional, immersed with his whole being into his craft and art. It’s a level of involvement and dedication and focus to strive for.

Yes, the guy had issues, but how can he not. He has been in a hot house of visibility his entire life . He probably did not really know how to be a normal person

I could see an opera based on his life….just sayin’.

If you play, a piano is a means of expression, a means of communication. It has been said that a piano is western civilization’s most perfect tool for the communication of emotion. That can be external communication, directed to an audience, or internal, directed only to oneself. It can be a tool of profound exploration or simple time passing, but so can any piano, right?

Yes, of course, but also, no, obviously not. A craft built piano has 2 important qualities; musical range and a story. The range comes from the combination of carefully selected and treated materials and skilled craftsmanship. These elements DO make a difference and even the most casual piano player can tell the difference.

One common experience occurs when a fairly accomplished amateur, somebody who has a reasonable command of a couple pieces and some serious study under their belt, visits a store to try a variety of pianos. This has happened often enough that I no longer consider it a fluke. This person visits various pianos in the room, spending significant time at each piano exploring its capabilities before coming to, in my experience,  the Bosendorfer. After a couple of minutes at the Bosendorfer you can not only hear the change but you can see the light bulb of awareness light up. The same musical phrase is explored over and over, a smile often crosses the face. Afterwards, almost verbatim, the comment is made: “I didn’t know I could play that well”

Their teacher had been trying to get them to explore certain chord voicings, or to shape a phrase in a particular way, but their consumer grade piano just wasn’t up to the task,  it simply  wouldn’t give up the goods. It’s like trying to drive a mini-van in a Formula One race. The problem is that it wasn’t clear that it was the pianos fault…it must be the pianist, right?

Not always.

If a piano is going to be used for a concert with an orchestra, or as a recital piano in a hall with poor acoustics or over 1000 seats, power is important. The simple reality is that the piano must be heard whether one is battling a huge space, an insensitive conductor and orchestra, or uncooperative acoustics.

Many young pianists, striving to make a name for themselves and influenced by some iconic references including Horowitz and Russian school proponents, find themselves striving for power at the expense of color, dynamics and range. The phrase I heard at international piano competitions is that the contestant wants to “pin the ears of the jury to the back wall” as if the jury is there to simply identify  the loudest pianist, or the one that scares them the most. This may be the nature of a circus, action movie or fireworks display, but it is not the nature of music.

Music is a vehicle for expressing emotion. Yes, emotions can be fiery and loud, but they are more often subtle, quiet, like a soft hand on a shoulder rather than a slap in the face.

Is power the only, or even the most important attribute a piano must exhibit? There are 2 other adjectives that are too infrequently used to describe piano tone, but are even more important; color and range. The ability to produce a range of tonal colors is all to often lost on many pianists, for the basic reason that many pianos cannot produce colors, no matter the technique used.  My personal belief is that once you use lacquer as a hardener you destroy a pianos true ability to create color. The fibers that make up hammer felt must be able to move through the voicing process. Once you glue these fibers together with lacquer, the result is simply gradations in volume, not color changes.

A punch in the jaw has more power than a kiss on the cheek. But, which one would you rather have?

It is one of those things that you really have to hear to believe, since piano legs are not given much thought as a tone affecting element. He calls the effect the Resinno effect

Justin showed his legs (I know, it’s funny, but let it go) in the DPA microphone booth at the Audio Engineering Convention in NYC last week. Big success. Shown here is the Royal Ebony set, consisting of 3 legs and custom designed pedal lyre, bench and music desk.