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crispin

Heh! You know I love to tease Yes I know this... and actually I like this healthy banter in this forum... but anyway you have a point - certainly the Sauter has a much cleaner finish and gives the impression that they are taking care of the details, much more than this hammerite finish that reminds...

crispin

Now that I have started this photo business - let me continue... here is a similar photo to to compare a Bechstein Academy 124 with the Sauter M122 of NewAge. The Sauter looks much cleaner - and the pins are more separated in the vertical direction - which I would guess would make the problem (if it...

crispin

Dear NewAge Looking carefully I find maybe 10 cases where #1 touches the coil of #2 of the same note... and one wonders why since the positions of the tuning pins is fixed by holes in the frame.. one would assume that the frame is carefully designed do that the wires do not touch. I am not exactly s...

crispin

Although I can not know for certain how much of this Bechstein academy comes from Germany or elsewhere... to me this is besides the point. One expects a piano labelled Bechstein with the corresponding price tag to have Bechstein quality and to be backed up by the Bechstein name. This piano was bough...

crispin

Dear Barrie In general I do not think the strings are touching in the dead space - close but not touching... if I look carefully maybe I will find one... but in general they do not touch. Exactly how do I tell if the pressure bar is set too high? I add a photo below... I will try and find a large sc...

crispin

Dear NewAge: Indeed the piano was bought in July 2008... and tuning #5 will happen in two weeks time. I am not sure if you have a humidifier - now I do - without it the humidity drops to 20% due to becoming so cold outside. I now suspect that the humidity should stay in the same range as you... and ...

crispin

Previously I have posted about our new Bechstein Academy A124 upright going horribly out of tune over a two month period. At that time I was uncertain where to apportion the blame since winter had created a period of low humidity... since that time I have been running a humidifier that kept the humi...

crispin

Well - you ask a big question here..... and it is not so easy... I think word of mouth is a reasonably guide ... some years ago when we were starting down this path... our piano tuner asked who the teacher was -- when we told him - he said : "You are lucky - she is the best". Personally no...

crispin

double post - sorry

crispin

This is just the start ... wait until your child has to hold various notes in a chord longer than others ... Unless the teacher can hear these faults and correct them before they become habit - your child will be lost. My child's teacher also insists that the fingering is done correctly and consiste...

crispin

It is clear - you need to find a new teacher ... bite the bullet and do it now. There is absolutely no excuse that he did not pick up the wrong notes - wrong fingering and all the other technical issues... this is his job.

crispin

Buying an acoustic piano is a good idea :D However I have had a bad experience with a piano going horribly out of tune : see http://www.uk-piano.org/piano-forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6843 for details. I now have a hygrometer - and was shocked to find the RH in our house was 25% at 18 C (outside w...

crispin

Just to bring this story to a close The tuner appeared today... Oh là là - said he on playing some notes ... indeed he was a bit shocked to find it so out of tune. He did not think that I needed a humidifier ... he said that apartments tended to be much drier than houses ... however he suggested tha...

crispin

Indeed it is a Bechstein Academy 124 ... and a very fine piano it is when in tune. Even though the regular readers of this forum know which piano I have - I hesitated about pointing a finger too much at the manufacturer of this piano - as I felt I was being unnecessary alarmed by these horrid soundi...

crispin

Many thanks for the reassurance... these words were what I was looking for... Maybe I was misled by our tuner who seemed convinced that it should be stable from the word go - an opinion that does not seemed shared on this forum - and now not shared by me. However I have been amazed at how ugly the s...

crispin

Case History: bought quality german upright piano in June 2008 Tuned and inspected by independent tuner - end of August 2008 - verdict super piano - highest octave was unpleasantly sharp but otherwise everything seemed in relatively good tune. Tuned by tuner supplied by store November 2008 ... also ...

crispin

Dear Markymark Actually I am as British as I assume you are... it is just that I left the UK many eons ago ... and have lived in France for the last 20 years - actually my French is not as good as it should be - my children laugh at my accent - but that is life... Anyway I am curious re the UK piano...

crispin

no memorising is necessary on the pieces, but as any student will tell you it certainly will improve the fluency of your playing in the exam room. Thanks for the info ... I was just curious to compare the UK system with the French system where memorizing the piece is expected. You have to present t...

crispin

I have been looking at these and other YouTube videos re grade 1, 2 ... etc One thing I notice - and surprizes me is that many of these children playing these pieces read from the partition in front of them. Is this just these particular videos - or do you have to memorize these pieces for the grade...

crispin

Madam Rice from the US came and performed recently for Brenda and her corgi... and somehow they had found a Yamaha for her to play on... maybe the better class of piano were reserved for a better class of visitor

crispin

I reckon a silent function beats the crap out of a practice pedal any day of the week. And to prove it I propose we organise a naked mud-wrestling match between Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lopez. Suddenly this topic is becoming more interesting ... I support the practice pedal - but I am willing to b...

crispin

I’m not sure what had happened in transit, but all the black notes bobbled and there was clearly a different range of movement in the mechanism for each key. I am not sure what bobbled means... if I look in my dictionary I find : move with an irregular bouncing motion. .. sounds bad - are you sure ...

crispin

Actually I am not sure exactly what weighted keys are - I see them mentioned on the forums as stop gap solution - if you enter weighted keys into ebay - you will se that they start at about 200 GBP ... so I am not suggesting you drop a grand on this item. Certainly such an instrument will be better ...

crispin

Kreshakara I did not mean to imply that digital is better than silent... and certainly the touch of a digital is completely different than an acoustic.... and I know you will want the acoustic touch in some months time. However - you did appear to be painting yourself into a corner by demanding that...

crispin

If the one you liked in the shop is still there and is in the right colour etc, just get the dealer to exchange it. Somehow PianoGuy always gets in with the correct statement - and gets in first! But actually - I would take the one in the show room even if it is wrong colour. Hopefully the support ...

crispin

Ditto the message of PianoGuy... I have been amazed by the difference in tone/sound of apparently identical pianos.... You should tell the pianoshop that you are returning this piano - and want a full refund - or the delivery of the same model piano if you like the tone/sound in his show room. It is...

crispin

Just out of interest - did you play and chose this piano in the piano store - or did you take delivery of some other piano that came from some warehouse. Did it have these problems with the tone when you tested it? I can only offer sympathy - since the arrival of a new piano should be such a pleasan...

crispin

Just to be clear - I am not a fan of these electronic pianos either - but I do have the luxury of not living on top of neighbours - so the piano only annoys other family members... I also have never played a silent piano - but there is a thread: http://www.uk-piano.org/piano-forums/viewtopic.php?t=6...

crispin

Given that you have started lessons... you need to get a piano as soon as possible... given that the silent option seems to be such an important feature - have you considered an electronic piano with fully weighted keys. From what I understand - but I do not really know - these 'silent' mechanisms d...

crispin

ennjaydee... I really encourage you to listen to the Wingfield recordings at the link I gave above. It really also depends exactly on what your requirements are: If you want to record just your piano - then I would suspect that external microphones - preamps - some recorder will get you the best pos...

crispin

Genaa... It depends a bit on what you want to record ... if you ask the experts - they will start talking of using stand alone microphones + preamps etc. I wanted a recorder that was self contained - with internal microphones of sufficient quality that I would not be disappointed in a year or two .....

crispin

Now that ennjaydee has joined this thread - I look forward to a audio sample of this cotton wool....

crispin

I agree with NewAge and A440 ... the Sauter, especially the MasterClass, is a beautiful instrument... so congratulations to both NewAge and Genaa... Anyway just to add to this thread a recording of my son playing a Bechstein Academy A124 upright... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_y70FHRkgQ The vide...

crispin

Dear Genaa Many good wishes for many hours of enjoyment with your very good looking piano... but where are the recordings? :D Recently I have started to investigate how to make recordings and find that pulling the piano away from the wall and pointing the microphones towards the back of the sounding...

crispin

We had one the other day with Grade 3

crikey

crispin

I'm sure you think you're being helpful. However, I found that post arrogant and rude. I don't want to appear as defending PianoGuy ... since basically he needs no defending. Having the many comments from someone so knowledgeable and helpful as PianoGuy makes this forum special. Equally enjoyable i...

crispin

Genaa - with your Sauter you will get your documentation and also a polishing cloth :D. With our Bechstein Academy 124 - we do have some documenation inside taped in a pocket to the front of the case - plus a receipt from the dealer and a photocopy of his guarentee. After spending so much - I found ...

crispin

... also better felt is normalcy used If I understand correctly... the type of wood may just indicate that a 'better' felt has been used to cover the hammer... and thus there is no magic associated with the exact wood. If the weight (and thus the density) of the hammer is important - surely one can...

crispin

Today the tuner came to give my new Bechstein Academy 124 upright its free tuning - I asked him about the difference between this piano and the Zimmermann Z1 that I nearly bought. He said that a big part of the difference was due to the wood of the hammer heads. The Bechstein has these mahoggany Abe...

crispin

Dear Stuart This is excellent... I encourage you to sit in the lesson if the teacher does not have a problem with that. I still sit in on the lessons of my son - and she treats me as if I am not there : ie completely focussed on teaching my son... and this works well. However I guess that both parti...

crispin

I am sorry to hijack these thread a bit but just to add a bit to my previous post ... I was interested in how the teaching is done in the UK - compared to France - where I live. I can only comment on the French system - and what I see in the particular location that I am in... In France - many local...

crispin

I completely agree with the words of Samick and urge you to get a teacher as soon as possible. Keep him on the list at school and maybe he will get to get free lessons some day... but now when he is enthusiastic is the time to get a teacher - especially before any bad habits get ingrained. I also ag...

crispin

Dear Vernon What about a design fault? According to ermy73 many of these Kemble Mozart 121 have this problem and the solution offered by Kemble is to upgrade to the K131. I would prefer that the radar unit in the plane is upgraded to the next model than have the technician called out to adjust it fo...

crispin

Dear PG The Petrofs and Rosslers that we found and judged to be fine were at a dealer where 'dealers prep' was taken to some extraordinary degree. About 1/3 of the upright pianos were in some kind disassembly ... the dealer himself obviously loved his pianos and was taking great care to regulate eac...

crispin

Dear PG Can you elaborate on this statement: Petrofs are total cr*p On our piano hunt we tried out some Petrof and Rosler uprights ... and found them OK. The Rosler's especially seemed to have a low price ... I am now glad that we did not go down this route - since you have made this comment... but ...

crispin

I knew that Genaa would respond to Descombes.. and with some justification. When looking for an upright piano I found the following web site in france: http://www.euroconcert.fr/comparatif-pianos-droits.pdf (sorry - it is in french). Anyway this guide for choosing a piano should not be taken as an a...

crispin

I am happy for you ...

crispin

Genaa You were looking for ways of dealing with your withdrawal symptoms - maybe you could offer to go and play this M130 and tell us and Ennjaydee how it matches your expectations :? - if I understand correctly - you ordered a M130 after playing a Rondo - now is the time to whet your appetite for y...

crispin

It is very refreshing to have PianoGuy on this forum - excellent technical info and a shot of hardcore reality now and again :? So the bottom line is : go and listen to these Sauters - and if you get carried away with the tone and touch - you should be able to cut an excellent deal on this slightly ...

crispin

Dear Ennjaydee I am not sure if the Sauter sound is affected by the action - I assume you are thinking about R2 repetition mechanism - however these Sauters have some special sounding board made with wood from special Italian forests. each sounding board has its own serial number. I was also very im...

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Type of wood used for hammer heads - is it important?