Posted on 11/17/2011 8:51:59 PM PST by freespirited
Edited on 11/18/2011 9:51:41 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Does Bowie State really need $553,000 worth of new pianos? More specifically, Steinway pianos, the cr
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The emergence of the electronic keyboard has made piano tuning a lost art. I saw the handwriting on the wall back in the early 1980's so I decided to go to law school. I still have all my tools, but I haven't worked on a piano in 15 years. I haven't actually owned one in 25. When you have 10 or 15 in your garage at any given time being worked on, you don't need to own any.
The technology for the Russian unit you mentioned would clearly have long been in the public domain. Why isn’t it replicated today? Perhaps it’s impractical to manufacture with today’s labor constraints.
The one really knowledgeable technician I work with is also a full time musician and composer and this is how he stays afloat. He rebuilds and sells as well. I always love visiting his studio. I don't have to tell you why.
It is time to get you a piano. Your ear is exquisite. I don't know how you bear not having one. Your passion is clear. Take your lawyer money and get yourself a damn piano :-D!
Hell if those kids can have brand new Steinways with OPM, I don't know why an experienced technician, aficionado, and lawyer can't have one.
It is more art than technology. When the piano came into our shop we went over it with a fine tooth comb trying to figure out how they got this big sound in such a small piano. Our conclusion was that they had thinned the edges of the soundboard and then monkeyed with the braces to give the soundboard a better shape. I also think the spruce they used was probably a Siberian species with a very short growth period and very tight violin quality grain pattern (something in the range of 30 grains per inch). The action was unique and the reason that they don't use some of the technology that we found in the action is that it only benefits the piano technician and would have added a lot of money to the cost of the piano. There were a lot of cool innovations that really would not have justified the cost.
I play the guitar about 2 hours a day. I was a piano technician but I was never really a piano player. I could play a few songs, but the guitar has been my instrument of choice. I enjoyed rebuilding and tuning pianos more than playing them. I loved to hear other people play.
Good investment or not, why buy them now? Why not wait? Why not shift money around in their existing budget to buy the Steinways rather than ask for MORE money from the taxpayers?
Ah. That explains a lot. Congratulations on the time commitment playing the guitar. Excellent!
When I buy a Roland (which I will eventually) I know who to FReepmail on advice :-). I’ve been eyeballing them for awhile. Do you have LogicPro too?
LogicPro, no. I’m not an Applezoid. I’ve dabbled in Pro Tools for Windows, but I have a pal with an older technology hard wired setup that gets a killer sound that I can’t equal even with Pro Tools. I use him when I want to record something serious. When playing around I use Audacity on Linux.
Roland is both better and worse than where it started depending on what aspect you look at. They can’t afford to build cabinets the way they did in the early nineties. That counts in how a standalone unit sounds. But if you’re piping it through a decent external sound system, it doesn’t matter so much. Quality headphones count if you prefer the private listening approach. I suggest high end Sony, or the newer KRK models. In the meantime Roland has gotten the acoustic keyboard feel down almost pat, to the point that the high end feels lighter than the low end and on their deluxe models feels like a real wood escapement action. (As a ham handed pianist I never paid attention to that on an acoustic, even though it’s true with lighter hammers on the high end.) A bonus is that you can play more than just piano with a keyboard. Harp lends itself well, as do (oddly enough) violin and other voices that have sharp attacks, even though lack of aftertouch limits the realism (I make up for that by fiddling the volume control, and can get a pretty mean saxophone emulation that way).
Something old, something new!
Cool!!! I want to play it. Look at those feet. Is that two pedals?
Thanks very much for posting. DEFUND/DISMANTLE (when necessary) socialist collectives foreign and domestic. $top $pending.
GRRRRREAT post!
Check it out. Bowie State is not great, highly-ranked school. If anything, it is mediocre, at best. This is just THE freak state, maryland, spending to make some people happy. What else is new in this DIMocRAT-run loserville?
,,,,, you see ,,, when you’re already 39 billion in debt what the hell is a measly $553,000.00 add on ???
ANSWER : THERE ARE NO LIMITS FOR DEMOCRATZ AND THEY CAN ALWAYS BLAME SOMEONE OR SOMETHING ELSE FOR THEIR CONTINUED FAILURES . The DEMOCRAT party ,, of and for the ZOMBIES in this country .
50 years of welfare, 40 acres and a mule and a piano. Just the tip of the iceberg.
Yeah - one or two Steinways for the concerts, and Yamaha acoustics, not electrics (NO way!), for the private lessons and practice rooms. That would be reasonable.
The middle pedal (the sostenuto pedal) is a strictly American invention). It was a Steinway patent and was probably not incorporated in other brands until at least the early 1920’s. I worked on some post war Yamahas that had 2 pedals. I don’t think the Japanese used the sostenuto pedals until the 1960’s. A lot of American piano companies put in a bass sustain pedal as a substitute and upright pianos still use the middle pedal as a bass sustain. IIRC Steinway uprights have a true sostenuto.
Does Maryland have a state government or a menagerie?
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