budget

[Fred Sturm]

--On Thursday, August 7, 2003 7:13 PM -0400 A440A@aol.com wrote:

> Fred writes:
> <<  My
> chair tells me he is almost certain the upper administration will approve
> our request for a new course fee of $5/credit hour for all music dept
> courses, targeted at pianos. This will generate $40,000 to $60,000/year,
> but the bulk will go to piano replacement.>>
>
> AAAAAAARRRRGGG!!!
>    I see this all too often!   Several years ago, I found that a major
> state  university had received the funds to purchase a new Steinway D.
> They had two  older ones, one of which had been horribly "rebuilt" about
> 5 years before, and  was  unusable.  The other was in poorly regulated
> and voiced limbo.     I tried to tell them that for the price of a new
> one, the old one could be  completely, (and I mean COMPLETELY) restored
> and they would still have  $50,000 left over to bring others up to par.
> It didn't wash, they had been  convinced that a NEW one was the only way
> to have the 'genuine' experience.     I just returned from that school
> where I spent time with the "other" piano.   I repinned the hammerline
> and assorted whippen problems, reshaped hammers,  worked over the
> stringing, regulated, tuned and voiced.  When I was done, the  first
> faculty member that played it said, "Wow,  I wish our new piano played
> and sounded this good"!  Maybe we can figure out a way for you to restore
> the  really bad one".
>    As Caut members, we really need to get our sales pitch down to a
> science  so that schools can be made to understand that replacement of
> better brands of  pianos is far more expensive than restoration, and the
> results are NOT  superior.  It blows my mind to see a school turn in a
> handful of worn out Steinways  in trade-in on a like number of new ones.
> That is a great deal for the  factory, but the school is getting taken to
> the cleaners.
> Regards,
> Ed Foote RPT
> www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/
> www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
>  <A
> HREF="http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/399/six_degrees_of_tonality.html">
> MP3.com: Six Degrees of Tonality</A>
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