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MMD > Archives > December 2001 > 2001.12.16 > 05Prev  Next


Autopiano by Kastner & Co. England
By Dan Wilson, London

D L Bullock said of his Triumph Autopiano:

> This piano indeed had the Triumphodist and buttons.  I found it a
> pain to use.  Interesting colloquialism "found it a bit of a fiddle"
> What does that mean for us Yanks?

"I found it a pain to use" will do nicely.  Surely, "fiddly" is known
in American?  "Not well designed, you have to do three things where one
is feasible", that sort of thing?

From the antiquity of the beast (divided hammer-rail lift for the
treble and soft subduing, 65/88 note tracker-bar) Roger Waring's
Kastner Autopiano sounds more like one of their pre-Triumph instruments
made before the merger.

Kastner was not a German company but an English one, founded by a German
whose name was actually Kaestner [but spelt with u-umlaut, not 'ae']
so despite the dieresis (the ") not appearing on the pianos, employees
still referred to the company as "Kestner's".  The early British
Autopianos existed in some numbers both in 65-note and 65/88-note
form and some of the latter were also fitted with the notorious 40-port
Kastonome expression system well covered in earlier messages, making
the tracker-bar monstrously tricky to manufacture.  ("Tricky":- a bit
worse than "fiddly"!)

Dan Wilson, London


(Message sent Sun 16 Dec 2001, 19:17:00 GMT, from time zone GMT.)

Key Words in Subject:  Autopiano, Co, England, Kastner

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