On Sat, 16 Oct 1999, David Calhoun wrote:

> Up here in the far left corner, we have a piano rebuilder who is
> big into hotrodding pianos. His specialty is to find an 1870s
> Steinway and gut it (...) "antique" pianos of overpoweringly loud sound;
> (...)complaining of ringing ears.

One of the big topics at last year's piano technician's guild convention
was the new baby grand player pianos; rich people bought them thinking
they showed greater taste than a totally electronic musak system, and then
found out they didn't come with a dial to turn the volume down, and at
normal baby-grand volume they often inhibited conversation. Sometimes, you
see, machines are dumber than musicians. So the big question for the
tuners was how many blankets you have to stuff into them where, and how
much do you get to charge for doing it.

By the way, lots of males figure out how to play cocktail piano without
being so loud as to offend their hostesses; maybe they're who we should be
training on the fortepianos instead of the conservatory students -- I'm
sure THEY would figure out how not to break strings. (Just kidding; but I
had to replace the second bass string on a 5-year old church baby grand
yesterday . I'm told the young male who keeps breaking them is 5' 2" and
130 lbs.)

Judy