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Thanks for the advice! Will take heed to it.

Sorry for the OT, but sometimes it's a quick break, and then it helps get things back on track...

Rick

Hi Piano Dad. Long time...etc. Best, Adrian

Yes, however if after staying still for a bit (if things seem calmer and you want to go further) it's probably best to slowly lower the body and offer a hand (closed so as to protect the fingers) for sniffing. Then call it a day and slowly withdraw the hand rather than going for a stroke, do keep the hand below the dogs head both when approaching and withdrawing it. If/when you do go further and (slowly) try to stroke the dog it will likely feel much more comfortable if you stroke the top of its chest - that feels the wrong approach to humans but the dog can/will interpret a stroke (please not a pat) on the head as a signal of you asserting dominance and that may not end well.

Good advice also, gwing. However, as much as I like dogs, I don't think I want to give it a second go with that particular animal, which I do not encounter often. That said, the thought did cross my mind, "bite me once, (while trying to be friendly) shame on the dog; bite me twice, shame on me". Or something like that?

But, hey, I'm a firm believer in second chances, depending on the circumstances.

Lots of wisdom to be gained here on PW, on a broad variety of subjects!

Edit to add: it has also been my experience that pianos become brighter over time, with lots of playing, rather the mellower...

Rick

Thanks all, this is what I had suspected.

I was wondering that maybe, if the factory ships with some kind of lacquered process on the hammers, perhaps that wears down after a while (but sooner than the grooving of the hammer). That kind of hypothetical is the only thing that would make sense to me.

I have sneaky feeling Estella may be wise in choosing one of the new pianos. Athdara's posts speak for themselves. Last year a member from Singapore said a Fazioli imported for Angela Hewitt had much improved after two or three years. I can't remember his exact words but resonance and suppleness come to mind. From memory it hadn't been voiced.

If you fancy a new piano would you opt for a four year old floor model from a heavily trafficked store in Hong Kong?

As long as the piano is in good cosmetic condition(if not ask the dealer to touch up the finish) I would certainly choose that piano over one whose tone I didn't like with the hope that the tone could be adjusted to my liking after I pay for it.

Neither choosing the four year old piano in a heavily trafficked store or choosing a piano whose tone one doesn't like is an ideal choice. That's why many posters recommended the OP ask the dealer to voice the piano more to her liking before committing to purchase.

Actually, I would, provided the floor model was in "as new" condition.
Why?
I would already know how that piano sounds and feels. Whatever settling in necessary to acclimate to Hong Kong's temperatures and humidity would already have been accomplished. The piano would have been voiced, and, yes, to a certain extent, the action MIGHT have been "worn in" past the initial factory setting.

With the other two pianos, there's just no way to know how they will develop as they ripen with age. As stated previously, de minimus, they should be auditioned in the same room as the floor sample, and, if at all possible voiced to match the floor sample. Only then, if the new one equaled (or bettered) the floor sample would I buy the new one.

I bought a Young-Chang 208cm with a Weber stencil on it in the early 1990's that had been a floor model used for in store recitals. Of course students played/pounded on it while it was on display. It was a terrific piano. I went through the first hammers and a second (Abel Natural Selects, Medium Weight) before selling it to someone who loves it to this day. Finish was perfect when I bought it, yes, a little bit of hammer wear, but it stayed stable throughout its life with me.

So, yes, not only would I buy a floor sample, I did.

Beyond that, the usual caveats, and the obligatory YMMV :-)

I do not know where Estrella and Athdara live, but Pandora was distracted and opened a box..Athdara says she now loves her piano. That is what she wrote.We do not have to question her or be suspicious about that.This whole thread is not only about Estrella buying a Sauter MC (which it seems she never tried) it is about people and thier perceptions.

We have not tried any of these Sauter pianos so we really do not know how they sound!!! Being a new piano the piano will be adjusting to its environment.It sounds awfully humid in Hong Kong,.nevertheless any new piano needs to adjust.The strings need to stretch, and as I said before some people do not notice how out of tune a piano is.They are just dissatisfied with the tone and they cannot perceive what the problem is.(oh its so bright) There must have been great expectations about buying a Sauter MC yet none of us really know what the problem is. Saying all of this I would only buy a piano I have played a number of times.I would suggest exchanging the piano for the floor model is perhaps the only solution.Unless there REALLY are 2 Masterclass models in the store.Please try before you buy.

Yes its quite possible that Angela Hewitt does enjoy playing her new Fazioli piano now more than she used to.

Here is the direct quote from the post I mentioned. After a year, "the sound had blossomed", "a slightly mellower attack", "more complex overtones".

Yes thank you Withindale, perfectly understandable too!

I think Angela Hewitt probably liked her new Fazioli a lot from the beginning. I also can't imagine that the personal piano of top pianist didn't get some or even considerable voicing over a period of a few years. Even small amounts of voicing at each tuning, which is very typical, could improve the sound of the piano.

Nice to hear Starre 🙂

That memher was me. That Fazioli had not been voiced, but the dealer - an excellent master tech - had it regulated in such a way that significantly changed the tone of the instrument. This was not the first time i had witnessed him altering the tone through regulation - he did that with both my Bosendorfer and Sauter, as well as my Steinways.

Being an owner of a Sauter Delta myself, one scenario i can imagine where the piano got mellower over time is if the instrument was consistently exposed to the much higher humidity that is prevalent here (>70pct). The humidity not only has an effect on the soundboard (resonance) but possibily on the hammers as well (softer and thus mellower/muffled in general). Of course, almost all pianos respond to higher humidity in general, but i notice the change was more pronoumced on my Sauter, than say my Bosendorfer.

I find it hard to believe that the Fazioli hadn't been voiced, probably to a considerable extent, at the factory.

How can regulating affect voicing? I can understand how voicing can affect regulation but not the other way around.

Of course the Fazioli had been meticulously voiced at the factory, but not after it was delivered. I know that that it had been regulated, as the touch felt considerably lighter (perhaps with a shallower key depth as well), even as it sounded mellower with more overtones. While i'm not in a position to explain the technical details of how this was done, i had seen him do this on my other instruments, and seeing/hearing is believing.

Presumably, regulating an action can affect a number of ways the hammer could interact with the strings. The touchweight and be increased or reduced, the hammers can be shifted over to strike the strings more straight/leveled, the entire keybed can be shimmed to one side or other (or front/back), things like that?

Possibly, but I don't think changing the touch weight would change the tone, and one would assume things like adjusting how the hammers hit the string would have been done to the nth degree at the Fazioli factory. Perhaps some techs can comment on whether and how regulation can change the tone assuming the piano has been extremely well regulated at the factory.

In my previous post I should have said I can understand how voicing can affect TOUCH(not regulation).

I've experienced that regulation affects touch, which affects how the pianist responds, which can change the tone. Or conversely, my tech is going to voice down my hammers to change my touch perception. Unintuitive, but this is something I've recently seen after getting the new action and hammers!