I commented in a previous posting on how easy is for the piano to become ‘out of alignment’, as it were in a number of ways, for example, tuning, a particular bugbear with many cheaper pianos. Given the fact that I’m planning to do some recording from the piano fairly soon, I asked Wayne to visit and work his magic on the beast and see what needed to be done to optimise the recording process.
This he did last weekend, and as per usual when we get together we covered a multitude of conversational topics both connected with and not so much connected with the state of the piano industry in general and the Stuart piano in particular. In between and during which he (and I) drank multitudinous mugs of tea, pulled the piano to pieces, attacked it with various (to me) dangerous looking instruments both sharp and blunt, and then put it back together again after a final and detailed tuning of all 97 notes.
The results of course were excellent overall, and the piano is very stable in its current environment, which is all to the good. Most of the octaves and major intervals required very little adjustment and the piano has kept its tune, both in absolute and relative pitch terms, extraordinarily well. We focused on the topmost range of the piano and balanced out the really high notes to produce a very clean and sharp sound which augers well for the ability to examine the ‘vertical’ quality of the sounds, particularly when allied to the extraordinary bass qualities of the instrument.
One of the problems with tuning any piano is that after a while one’s ears become desensitised and that certainly happened to me – when I played the piano directly afterwards my ears didn’t feel comfortable at all, although later that night things had returned pretty much back to normal. It just goes to show that there really is a 200 watt amplifier in that piano – I only wish that Wayne would relent and show me where it is…
But, all facetiousness aside, there is no doubt that this piano, and by extension many others of this ilk as well, really do require constant tuning and voicing to bring out the best in them. The other conclusion I’ve reached over the period of time I’ve had the instrument is that it plays quite differently to when I first acquired it. Now that certainly includes much adjustment on my part as I’ve emphasised previously, and that process of course will continue ad infinitum, but the piano has settled as well and this gives added weight to the argument that playing a piano such as this in a showroom, dealer or even at the factory is not necessarily going to show you in any significant way how your relationship with the piano is going to be consummated long term. The piano will adjust to its environment, and you will adjust to the piano.
The implications of this are quite intriguing and potentially impact the marketing process for these pianos. More on that as we go forward.
Incidentally, I’ve done some test recording since, and the results are definitely better. A good excuse to keep going, I think.