Klaus Fenner?
Stacey Bowling
opportunity to buy an upright designed by him. I've been told that he is "a
legend in his own trousers", and that as he is getting on in years, he will
probably quit doing new designs very soon. Can anyone tell me anything about
Fenner, his work, his history, and what a piano with his work in it would
cost new in the US?
Thanks - email me directly at Stacey....@btinternet.com.
Sincerely,
Stacey Bowling
John S. Gray
Klaus Fenner lives in Bad Hersfeld in the foothills of the Alps in
Southern Germany. It is not that far away from the Obersalzberg.
The best way to understand Klaus Fenner's way of thinking is to read a
longish paper he published for the European piano builders' association
for one of their big conferences in the late 1970's. That conference was
held in Norway, if my memory is still accurate.
In this paper, he identifies design flaws of scale designs as
implimented without regard to the basic laws of physics, and extrapolates
many findings from them, with pointers how great improvements might have
been made on a brand X piano if only this stop point was moved 14 mm to
the left, and into the mathematical formulae which prove his points.
The German piano factories had built many terrible apartment-size duds in
the 1950's, (a fact that the Bechstein salesman doesn't want you to know)
and the industry was ripe for a major raising of standards. Fenner was
the man of the hour. He worked for Grotrian and Ibach, and others whose
names I have since forgotten. (Rick, Barrie: you will correct me on this,
I'm sure.)
Other designers read Fenner's paper and improved in their own right,
without the man himself being involved, or paid. One way or another, he
was involved in the sudden and largely unexpected leap in quality that
the German piano makers achieved during the 1967-1980 period.
In recent years the Samick company retained Fenner and actually
implimented some of his designs in their cheap mass-production pianos;
those stick out head and shoulders above others in that league which
were designed by the clone-and-ask-the-committee method. Unfortunately,
The Samick promotional materials imply that he re-designed all of their
pianos, and that is not true. If you want to see Fenner's work in a cheap
plywood piano, check out the Samick SG-205 6'8" grand. Now that one IS nice.
One characteristic of a Fenner-designed piano is that the chromatic
transition from plain treble wire to the upper wound bichords in the tenor
section is very, very transparent, with a nearly undetectable hole or
honking tone, as easily found in pianos with a less finely-crafted design.
JG
pTooner
Stacey Bowling wrote:
> Can anyone tell me anything about
> Fenner, his work, his history, and what a piano with his work in it would
> cost new in the US?
Around $3000. He designs mostly for Samick.
Gerry
Rick Clark
John has given you a lot of good information. The upshot from my
perspective is: you must keep in mind how many truly fabulous pianos
were NOT designed by Klaus Fenner. He's good. A lot of designers
are/were good. I wouldn't let it influence my decision such that I am
no longer looking at the piano quality as a whole.
You have encountered a particular marketing ploy. It has been done
many times in the past, naming other "renowned" designers. All other
things being equal, such a piano may have an edge over a "committee
design" such as John mentioned- but how often are all other things
equal? Not often.
And don't forget we have our own "famous scale designer" right here in
RMMP: Mr. Del Fandrich
Rick Clark
Anyone wishing to email me privately, ask me first in this NG and I will email you. Sorry, but this is an antispam measure.
Trey Behan
>He designs mostly for Samick.
My understanding is that he worked on Samick's new Kohler & Campbell products
as well.
Trey Behan