Definately Hauling over Suzuki. Suzuki is not a contendor for institutional use (flimsily built to very loose quality standards). Hauling has some advantages over Yamaha and if you are prepared to voice hard hammers can sound better. I had a school choose a Wendl (upgraded Hauling) over a U1 of the same size. I had extensively voiced it and it did sound much better, the winner though is that U1 keybeds move a lot with the weather and the piano is rarely in good regulation whereas the Hauling have a very solid aluminum frame keybed mounted to the plate. They don't go out of regulation for the weather. They have had this piano for some time now and I still get compliments and grateful thanks when I meet faculty regarding it. If they want the best bang for the buck over the long term they should get Sauter or a similar solid tier-one piano. With the Euro weak this is the best time to drive a hard bargain. YMMV, Andrew Anderson, Artisan Piano On Aug 27, 2010, at 8:37 AM, Aaron Bousel wrote: > Our department (UMass Amherst) is in the process of taking bids on > some new verticals. They've received bids for Yamaha, Hailun, Suzuki > and Sauter. I just received the following in an email from the > department chair: > > ================ > "What I need is any specific reasons why Hailin or Suzuki are not at > the Yamaha level. Everyone so far agrees we need to go w/ the > Yamahas, but I need specific reasons why the Suzuki or Hailin's > don't work---poor tone, action is known for too request repairs, > or??? " > ================ > > This is a state school and they may be required to go with the > lowest bid unless they can show good cause not to. The models in > question are: > Hailun HU 116 vs. Yamaha P22 > Suzuki AU8 vs. Hailun HU5, vs. Yamaha U1 > > This is the first time since I've been here that we're buying pianos > and also the first time the department chair has actually consulted > me on a piano issue. > > Have any of you had any direct experience with these pianos and can > answer his questions? Beyond siting Yamaha's reputation and track > record (and the fact that we have some 40 year old verticals that > are still in service) I'm not sure how to respond to his request. As > you can see from his email, this is not a matter of deciding which > piano they want, but of justifying the extra expense to the higher > ups. > > thanks for you help, > Aaron > > > ------------------------------------------ > Aaron Bousel > Registered Piano Technician, Piano Technicians Guild > abousel at comcast.net > (413) 253-3846 (voice & fax) > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20100827/ea5cdf3c/attachment-0001.htm>
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