Our pianos are getting pretty old. Richard West told me that it's been 20 years since we bought a new grand. We have a lot of Baldwin R's, a couple M's, quite a few Steinway M's all from the 60's when the building was new. The uprights are pretty much all the same age as well other than the Disklaviers. Fortunately, we only have a couple of Wurly's and Everett studios. I guess my best plan of attack is to get the piano faculty and classroom pianos in tune and look busy tuning practice grands while they're here. As far as increasing the repair money..that's not going to happen. Our Chancellor has already warned us of fairly severe cut backs over the next fiscal year or two due to the economy. Nebraska isn't nearly as bad off as the east and west coasts, but the belts will be tightened. I just hope they don't reduce my budget! PW Shelley <srbanders at sbcglobal.net> Sent by: caut-bounces at ptg.org 01/30/2009 12:15 PM Please respond to caut at ptg.org To <caut at ptg.org> cc Subject Re: [CAUT] NASM/NASD inspections My story at North Park University is much the same as Israel's. We were put on probation in 1998, and it was at that time they 'popped' for Dampp Chaser systems in all of the studio's. We have also gotten grants (Wurlitzer Foundation and private) for improvements for all of the Steinway's and have replaced all of the actions over the last 8 years. We have restrung several with new pin blocks. That seemed to do the trick. We are only just now investing in some new practice room pianos (Heinzmans, which the students love.) Cant blame em. The other options are 1950 Wurlitzers and Everett and Baldwin Hmltons all old and awful. Oh yeah and there is a Steinway 40 (oh joy). My poor assistants!! Anyway, no problem with that accreditation, relax. It just might be some impetus to get some repair money! Shelley Byrd Anderson North Park University Chicago On 1/30/09 9:21 AM, "Israel Stein" <custos3 at comcast.net> wrote: > >> Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:12:36 -0600 Paul T Williams >> <pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu> wrote: >> >> Hi All, >> >> We are having the NASM/NASD accredidation "inspections" in a couple weeks. >> What have you all found that they "inspect" on the piano end of it? Our >> building is going haywire on humidity(dangerously dry!) and I'm finding >> that pianos I just tuned a few weeks ago are wildly wacky and can in no >> way tune them all...! Do they inspect practice pianos....or should I only >> dust them off and make sure the faculty and performance pianos are the >> ones up to snuff? How about the harpsichords and forte pianos? (they >> only stay in tune for a couple of days anyway...)????????????????? >> >> Thanks for the input. I've never gone through this before.. >> >> Paul T. Williams RPT >> UNL School of Music >> > Paul, > > Sometime in the 90's (some years years before I came to work at San > Francisco State), their School of music was put on probation due to the > condition of their practice room pianos. They were being regularly > serviced by a staff technician, but they were judged to be too old and > worn. Considering that they were Hamiltons, Everetts and Wurlitzers > purchased between 1955 and 1970, I would say that the accrediting agency > was justified in its actions. The school had to embark on a program of > upgrading its practice piano inventory (they bought a bunch of Yamaha > P-22s) - and got off probation some years later. So my feeling is that > unless the pianos are falling apart (like ours were - some of them are > still kicking around the School of Theater Arts and I get to tune them > every year or two, woopeee!!!...), you don't have much to worry about... > > Israel Stein > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut_ptg.org/attachments/20090130/4290a823/attachment.html>
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