Mr. Powlan's statement [170924 MMDigest] about the nicks on his
Steinway Duo-Art fallboard caught my eye.  As an amateur pianist, 
I haven't consciously noticed the shorter keys on the occasional
Duo-Art grands I've played.  However, as a tuner I've run across
a number of straight grands where the fallboards are nicked up: on
some instruments in schools and churches there are long horizontal
gouges where the veneer and part of the core wood are worn away.

The shorter key length on players may be a problem for concert
pianists; that's an interesting question in its own right that I'd
like to hear more about.  I suspect -- based on my experience --
that nicks in general are less an issue of key length than a need
for certain pianists to tone down their bravura technique and/or
to trim their fingernails.

Richard Friedman
Upstate New York