[CAUT] Pianos for piano performance majors

[Jeff Tanner]

On Mar 30, 2006, at 7:39 PM, Porritt, David wrote:

> Our grand pianos are 75% Steinway.  Steinway Hall is trying to get  
> us to become an "All Steinway School".  I can't see any benefit in  
> that myself - well, except for only having to keep parts for  
> Steinways.  I certainly would not want to see a truckload of 1098s  
> come in as I don't want to retire yet and I'm sure I would if we  
> had 50 of those!
>
> dp
>

I've been at a school that had 50 or more 1098s and Ks.  Probably  
more than half of the 1098s were pre-1980 for sure, and probably  
older than that.  The rest, mid 90s.  When they're brand new, you  
think you're going to break your tuning hammer, but they ease up over  
time, and once you get the hang of it, they seem to hold tune better  
than anything I know of.  They are what they are, but the thing about  
them is you just can't wear them out.  They are workhorses, and that  
is why they make good practice room and studio pianos.  There were  
about a half dozen Yamaha P22s that were newer there, and they just  
couldn't keep up.  That experiment became known as the "disposable  
piano experiment".  Tuning stability and broken strings were constant  
problems.  But we rarely had trouble with the 1098s - the older ones  
anyway -- some of the newer ones had some jumpy pin issues, but so do  
our Baldwins here.  Our 5 1098s here dating from 1957 to 1967 are in  
very good shape considering the abuse and neglect they are exposed  
to.  I'm guessing we would have probably had to replace Bostons 3 or  
4 times by now.


On Mar 31, 2006, at 7:25 AM, Porritt, David wrote:
> When I
> think of the "All Steinway" designation the feeling I get is a  
> confined,
> cramped one.  I couldn't even fantasize about a Shigeru Kawai EX or  
> some
> piano that another manufacturer introduces next year because we'd be
> contractually obligated to only the instruments of one manufacturer.

It used to be that Steinway only required something like 83% or 85%  
of inventory to have All-Steinway status.  But apparently, there have  
been schools which would get to that point to get the status, and  
then go out and add pianos of other makes to their inventory.  So  
they have raised the percentage to 95% now.


On Mar 31, 2006, at 9:40 AM, Wimblees at aol.com wrote:
> I think we should look at the designation of being an all Steinway  
> school as being beneficial to the school, rather than for our own  
> desires.

So, am I alone in the thinking that Steinways actually make our job  
easier?

Wait till you have an inventory of 62 Baldwins.

Jeff



Jeff Tanner, RPT
University of South Carolina



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