Samick Pianos and many others

[Les Smith]

On Fri, 12 Dec 1997, Antares wrote:

> >I have heard repeatedly on this and the rec.music-makers.piano list that
> >smaller Korean pianos ( Samick has been mentioned ) are inferior and may
> >not last past a generation.  Well, of course, there is a Samick upright
> >sitting in my living room.  I have no idea how it got there, but there
> >it is.  My questions are:
> >
> >What is inferior about the piano?
> >What is likely to deteriorate over time? 
> >What should I look out for (both by physical inspection and change in
> >sound)?
> >Is there anything that I can do from a maintenance standpoint that will
> >delay the deterioration of the piano?
> >
> >Dan
> 
> Well Dan,
> These kind of pianos and many others of the same sort of quality are
> mainly being bought by customers who :
> 
> a. do not have enough playing experience
> b. do not have listening experience
> c. do not have enough money
> d. do not want to spend enough money

Hi, Dan.

Tell me, how does it feel to have just been told that the reason you have
an "inferior" piano sitting in your living-room right now is because you
don't play well enough to tell a good one from a bad one; your ear is so
poor that you can't tell a good sounding piano from a poor sounding one;
and that you're either too poor, or to cheap, to buy something of better
quality? Well me advice is not to believe a damn word of it!

Selecting a piano is very much like selecting a wife, beauty is in the
eye of the beholder and one way to ensure that you will be UNHAPPY is
to make your selection in an attempt to please others. The real question
you have to ask yourself is how do YOU FEEL ABOUT THE PIANO! Do YOU like
the way it looks? When you play it, do YOU like the "feel" of the action
under your fingers; in terms of the pieces YOU play, does the action do
what YOU want it to do. In terms of sound, do YOU like the way it sounds?
Are YOU able to get the exression and dynamics out of the instrument that
YOU want? If you have found a piano that YOU think looks good, sounds
good and that you enjoy playing, WHAT MORE COULD YOU ASK FOR? Such a
piano, be it an upright or grand, and whatever its make or age can hardly
be called inferior. It is, in fact, THE PERFECT PIANO FOR YOU. THAT'S
WHAT'S IMPORTANT. If you love your wife and some ignoramus were to call
her ugly, you'd want to punch them in the nose, right? I'd be inclined to
want to do the same thing to anyone who called a piano that filled my
eye, my ear and my heart, "inferior". Don't believe it for an instant.
To paraphrase that well-known piano-technician and philosopher John
Stuart Mill, if your Samick gives you as much pleasure and joy of owner-
ship as someone else's Steinway gives them, then your Samick is every bit
as good as their Steinway. So forget the nay-sayers, stop worrying and
enjoy your piano. Like the Hokey-Pokey, "That's what it's all about!" 

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net