---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment Dave, As the Director of Keyboard Maintenance at Northwestern University, it actually states in my job description that I have the authority to make determinations concerning the disposition of the piano inventory. The decision to rebuild or sell a piano involves a high degree of technical knowledge and experience; and while I often involve faculty in this sort of planning, I am the one who makes the final determination. Before making any decisions about our inventory, it was necessary to determine what the perfect inventory would be. I asked faculty members to imagine that all the pianos in the School of Music had to be removed, and asked them what they would put in the building if MONEY WAS NOT A CONSIDERATION. Next, I wrote a strategic plan for obtaining this "perfect inventory" which involved a program of rebuilding older instruments and purchasing new ones to the tune of $2.6 million. No one has given me the $ 2.6 million, but I did come out of all this with a very clear idea of what we are trying to achieve, and all the individual decisions about rebuilding or selling an instrument can be made based on this over-all goal. We are keeping all the old Steinway grands and will rebuild and remanufacture them as a renewable resource. It is always necessary to freshen the inventory with new instruments, and it's a lot easier to raise funds to buy a new Steinway. There's no glory in buying the university a new set of hammers, shanks & flanges! Ken Eschete Northwestern University > > How do you all decide on rebuilding or trading pianos? We have 30 very > rebuildable Steinways and my preference (since it is more cost effective) is > to rebuild and keep them going. Sometimes pianists just like getting a "new" > piano - justified or not. Currently they are trying to raise money for a new > instrument, and they are targeting the worst looking instrument to replace. > Other than the looks it's really OK. > > What criterion do you use for the rebuild/trade decision? > > dave Kenneth P. Eschete Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. USA k-eschete@nwu.edu ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/f4/91/75/6b/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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