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How is this achieved? Hydraulic jack?

That's what I thought it was. Was it the 308 or the 278?

He was there Friday but not his piano.I got him his badge.

If the two tone effect (burlwood) floats one's boat you could buy the Hailun (above pic) and pocket the remaining 200K.
The NAMM show was in Anaheim.In that I am the Hailun dealer in Southern CA. I wonder who bought that piano after the show. :rolleyes:

Did anyone stop by the Baldwin booth - anything you can tell us?

The Baldwin "booth" was in with Gibson guitars.

They had quite a few pianos on display, including a couple of the wacky designs (but also including traditional cabinets).

I couldn't get anyone's attention to ask questions. I did see one young lady (employee) dressed in jeans talking to some people about the pianos.

I keep hoping someone with official ties will jump on the forums to give us some info.

Details to follow.

They have some other interesting things in the works too. More information and pictures as they are available, likely in a few weeks.

From the Kawai Dealer Reception...

Hirotaka Kawai, President Kawai, Me, Kathy (LadyFord), Naoki Mori Exec. Vice President KAWAI America



Our thanks to Hale Ryan (National Marketing and Product Development Manager North America Acoustic Division
KAWAI America) for inviting us to the reception.

Frank, truly a pleasure meeting you and Kathy! I will make sure Mr. Kawai will see this on my trip to Japan late next week.

In the pictures, I miss the girls sitting on the pianos, talking to people about the pianos they are sitting on :rolleyes:



Edited to add cartoon

An overview of our impressions from NAMM 2009

In addition to piano manufacturers continuing to introduce new models, we found there were individuals developing new ideas.

Scott "the Piano Guy" Houston has some interesting projects in the pipeline (to be announced later).

Larry Fine (author of The Piano Book) also has some interesting projects in the works.
We talked about working more closely together in the future, something I'm looking forward to.
If all goes well, we should be hearing some news from him by late spring/early summer.

We ran into Robert Estrin of Living Piano.
Robert brings the music of historic pianos alive by performing on the original instruments, often in period costumes. ( www.LivingPiano.com ).
I suggested he get to know the Fredericks of Frederick's Museum fame ( www.frederickcollection.org/ ).

We also had the pleasure of meeting a number of members, wherever we went. It was great fun to walk into a display space or even a hotel lobby and have people come up to introduce themselves as members of our forums.

My overall impression is that the industry is cautiously optimistic.

Many manufacturers indicated they were having a good show. How much that is true, and how much of it was because they knew it would end up on the forums, I don't know.

I can say we chatted candidly with many dealers, and while none of them said business was great, most were satisfied with the previous year, and looking forward to better times.

The most optimistic of them were the ones who are proactively developing business by reaching out to their communities. Of prime importance: Offering lessons, giving great service, getting involved in community activities, hosting piano forums parties (ok, I snuck the last one in).

And then there were the performers!

Including the 14 year old boy who's mother works for Gibson. He went from piano to piano, playing wonderful performances of Chopin and other classical pieces. We happened to be in the booth when he proclaimed Fazioli to be his choice.

Too bad, his mother could probably have gotten him a nice deal on a Baldwin Hummer.

We were also treated to performances by our own Indrek Laul (Pres. of Estonia), Cecil from M&H, and Craig Smith of SMC. Each with their own unique style, and each amazing pianist in their own right.

EDITED: Craig pointed out to me that Cecil has a CD available on his web site ( www.cecilramirez.com/ ) I didn't even realize Cecil had a web site (sorry Cecil).

Then of course there are all the musicians wandering the floors of the show. NAMM is one big smorgasbord of great musical experiences, and as always, more than worth the trip.

I'm hoping some other attendees post to this thread later. I'll mention it in our next newsletter.

In the meantime, our thanks to all the people who make the show possible, to all the exhibitors who provide those wonderful toys to play and hear, and to all our friends old and new for their friendship and their music.

See you all at NAMM 2010!

This was a very enjoyable thread but I am still waiting for the photos of the Picts. Were they accompanied by any Druids?

I mentioned the Fazioli with the 4th pedal earlier in this thread.

Just found out Keyboard Magazine has posted a video with Russian classical pianist Natalia Kartashova explaining the fourth pedal on a Fazioli...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLJqhRYk6lw

We (Kathy and I) had her Natalia play the same piece, the girl can play.

The 4th pedal is not something exclusive to Fazioli and in fact not all that new.

Quite a few Wendl & Lungs, e.g. 178, 218 have been equiped with a fourth pedal. Series production shoud start any time soon now:

http://www.wendl-lung.com/jart/prj3...id=1218679102326&reserve-mode=active

This patenetd system was developed by Denis de La Rochfordiére; enjoy his website with a few videos aswell:

http://www.harmonicpianopedal.com/index-en.php

schwammerl.

True, 4th pedals have been around a long time.
But, this is the first time I've seen one in a grand that lifted all the hammers closer to the strings.

Stuart & Sons pianos have had this feature from the beginning (1990).

http://cjmoore.blogs.exetel.com.au/index.php?/archives/9-Four-pedals-but-Ive-only-got-two-feet.html

Regards
Chris

Thanks Chris.

I just took their web site tour (the Flash version). Interesting pianos, very pretty.
http://www.stuartandsons.com/

Are they only available in Australia?
Do they exhibit at NAMM?

Reading their promotional material, it appears that there are four left pedals available now.

1) The traditional una corda, which shifts all the hammers so that not all the strings are struck by the hammer, and so that the strings strike a softer part of the hammer (off the strike point). The effect is a tonal diminution as well as a subtle change in tone altogether.

2) The Fazioli fourth pedal, which is a half-blow mechanism that moves all the hammers half way closer to the strings. The effect mutes the sound so that you get tonal diminution, but since the hammers and strings are meeting in their usual place, the una corda change in tone is lacking.

3) The Stuart & Sons fourth pedal, which is also a half blow mechanism working the same way as the Fazioli fourth pedal. However, whereas the Fazioli fourth pedal is a distinct distance from the una corda, the Stuart & Sons fourth pedal is placed the same distance from the una corda as the sostenuto on the right. This allows the player to maneuver the left foot on to both the fourth and una corda pedal, so now you can create multiple qualities of tone in combination with the mute effect of the fourth pedal.

4) The Wendl & Lung fourth pedal, called the harmonic pedal. This appears to be a combination of the half-blow pedal with a sostenuto affect. In other words, you can play a chord with a half-blow tone, but hold it using the fourth pedal while playing on the rest of the keyboard without the half-blow muted affect. This allows many overtones of the chord to be subtly added to the rest of the music.

All the manufacturers emphasize that the half-blow mechanism on their grand pianos is different from the same mechanism found on some uprights. On uprights the effect seems to be to create a quiet but rather deadened tone, or as one manufacturer put it, a quiet tone that won't have the neighbors complaining. The richness of the tone disappears, but on a grand piano the richness remains.

The 'prettiness' is not restricted to the veneer :-)

Stuart pianos are available world-wide, but only directly through the factory in Newcastle, north of Sydney. They don't exhibit at NAMM.

Regards
Chris

This is correct and unique to the Stuart. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it is now very natural (and very effective) for me.

If you check out the video on the Fazioli, you will see that this is not possible on that piano.

Regards
Chris

I wonder if anyone has experimented with a pedal that changes the hammer strike point line. You could make it affect only part of the line maybe, or maybe all of it (I'm thinking if you did all of it the high tenor would get disproportionately affected).