cheeeeee Beautiful piano! I wonder how decision was made in terms of whether to replace or repair the original soundboard. Condition must be a determining factor?
Is the studio a teaching studio or a recording studio? If the former, your students are lucky! ☺️
Hey cheeeeee. When I bought the piano about 10 years ago, the board had been repaired, not so much the bridge cap. Over the years, Jim Colwell (my long time technician friend) did what he could to save the bridge applying superglue in various places as well as the base of the bridge pins. It helped, but ultimately, the piano lost some of its "oomph" where there were stress cracks in the cap, albeit filled ones. The board really was in good enough shape, though I left that decision to Luis and Jim to let me know. I really didn't want to change it, because then I would have had a different piano, instead of a renewed piano with the sound I knew and loved.
The studio is used for teaching (I usually put students on the Bechstein for a while so I can monitor them very closely, and the Bechstein is a unique experience for them...). I also coach/record singers and instrumentalists in it. With the sound treatments you see I have had some substantial operatic voices singing quite loudly, and we've been able to work together well in it. One thing that made a huge difference aside from the other acoustic treatments you see in the other picture of the two pianos, can be seen towards the tail of the Steinert - tan fabric up against the wall. That is for a corner "bass trap" that I bought pre-assembled and mounted in the corner. It cleaned up all the muddiness and overemphasis that can happen when you put a piano near the wall, and even worse, when you put it against the wall in a corner. With the bass trap, the bass is clear and blends well with the other frequencies.
As I get my strength back (I'm recovering from abdominal surgery...), I'm going to make a few recordings of shorter, simpler (but not terribly easy) pieces - first on the Bechstein, then on the Steinert. This will give people a chance to hear the differences in the tonalities, and I think it should be interesting listening.
