[sdiy] Getting over eBay (rant)

[Don Tillman]

   > Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 02:37:15 +0930
   > From: "Batz Goodfortune" <batzman at all-electric.com>
   > 
   > This would be a major problem in the case of pianos. Not many
   > people may be aware that the reason a number of acoustic guitar
   > makers went to using poly carb bodies etc, was because the wood
   > to make a good sound just isn't available any more. Well not at a
   > reasonable price.

I don't believe this.

The only non-wood acoustic guitars made in any quantity are the
Ovations, and those are built that way for efficient manufacturing,
for gigging ruggedness, and for resistance to temperature and
humidity changes.

   > I read an article where it was suggested that the major research
   > that Roland and others did into creating a digital piano with the
   > exact feel and sound of a real piano was because they realized
   > that in the near future, no-one will be able to make a real
   > piano. Unless they started working out an alternative they might
   > not have a piano business at all. And Roland didn't even have a
   > piano business as such.

I don't believe this either.  Roland knew, as does everybody else in
the business, that the price of digital memory has been dropping by
roughly two orders of magnitude every decade.  That's steep, and it's
been steady for at least four decades.  A sampler-based piano becomes
implementable at some point, and forever dirt cheap after that.

   > In Japan, it's actually illegal to print the words "This battery
   > may explode or leak if recharged." etc. Because it's basically
   > bullshit.

In the US, most of such warnings on products are because of the large
number of frivolous lawsuits (and the large number of frivolous
lawyers).  It's become a sort of running joke.

  -- Don

-- 
Don Tillman
Palo Alto, California, USA
don at till.com
http://www.till.com