David, You have some great points. On your first point, that's one of the things I hope to learn by my asking all of you these questions. Those of you with 1098's in practice rooms, do the students like them? Do they prefer them? Are they ignored? How is tuning stability in a practice room environment, etc? Of course there are other considerations. Given a blank check and carte blanche, I would want more diversity. But if an all Steinway campaign sells more tickets, will we be happy with the limitations? And on your second point, a maintenance budget is a very big part of our campaign funding. I have been sitting here "crunching" numbers on Steinway's institutional service guidelines modeling software. They created a specific list of parts inventory that you should have in stock. It also, like the CAUT institutional guidelines, figures in how many technicians are supposed to be on staff and the frequency of service and tuning expected on the pianos. Part of what we would plan to raise in a campaign is an endowment for piano service budget. I started down this path (kicking and screaming at first) because of budget. In raising this kind of money, I expect the all Steinway approach to have a definite advantage. What potential donor is going to bite at a generic "we need to buy pianos" campaign? But, the concept of having their name attached to an all Steinway school has class. Ask anyone on the street what the word Steinway means and they will probably tell you it's one of the best pianos in the world. Something anyone can relate to. But will the end justify the means? Will students and faculty be happy with just one brand? Will I be happy having to maintain the beasts for the rest of my career? And yes, will we be able to afford to maintain them and fund a replacement schedule in the future? What I'm learning so far is that I need to be open to the possibility and learn what I can from all of you CAUT's out there. If I go along, I want to know that I'm making the best decision. If I go against it, I want to be able to defend my position with as much data as I can gather. Thanks for so many great posts from everyone, Chris On Dec 5, 2008, at 4:31 PM, David Love wrote: > I don’t think the issue is whether or not there is “some virtue” in > a 1098, the broader question is what to buy, how can the institution > best use the limited funds that they have, how well protected is the > investment, what should one expect in terms of replacement and what > are the associated costs with each manufacturer. These should be > the considerations both on this piano specifically and in general > terms on larger acquisitions. It can be complicated to assess all > this because different manufacturers offer different options at > significantly different costs and budgets presented by universities > are often not balanced adequately between acquisition, service and > replacement expectations. So two main points: > > 1. Compared to what. A 1098 is certainly better than a Winter > spinet but if you sat 10 pianists down with a new 1098 and a new U5 > side by side and asked them which they preferred to play and > practice on I imagine the U5 would win hands down. Since the cost > factor allows you to purchase at least one U5 (and I’m not saying > there aren’t other possibilities, I’m using this as a point of > discussion) and probably more than one with additional possibilities > for creative financing, auctions, short term loans that may be > present with the Yamaha and not the Steinway, I think you would be > remiss not to advise looking beyond Steinway before a decision is > made. Even if the goal is to simply be able to use the name > Steinway as a marketing tool there may be other considerations. > The measure may not be simply Steinway versus Yamaha, in this case, > but 1098s versus new U5s or Model S’s versus new C7s. Then the > benefit of the promotional package may be more difficult to > demonstrate if not lost altogether. Many lay consumers don’t > differentiate between the performance characteristics of various > models and there is, obviously, a difference. > > > 2. What about servicing. Leaving aside the issue of ease of > service there is the bigger issue of service expectations and > costs. Most of the time requirements of servicing are > underestimated and/or undervalued. If you exhaust the budget on > boutique acquisitions and leave little for the requisite maintenance > then your investment may both present poorly and deteriorate more > quickly. Perhaps the better solution would be to buy an higher end > 2nd tier model (or two) and devote a higher portion of the remaining > budget to more frequent servicing, installation of humidity control > systems and associated maintenance, and parts replacement. You may > end up with better performing models to begin with, more of them > and more money left over to increase frequency and depth of service. > > David Love > www.davidlovepianos.com > Christopher D. Purdy R.P.T. Registered Piano Technician School of Music, Ohio University Rm. 311, Robt. Glidden Hall Athens, OH 45701 Office (740) 593-1656 Cell (740) 590-3842 fax (740) 593-1429 http://www.ohiou.edu/music -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut_ptg.org/attachments/20081205/292a7369/attachment-0001.html>
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