pianos in the future wasRe: Saddest O of the Week

[Wimblees]

List 

After reading some of the reports of the "death" of the piano as we know it
today, I must make this observation. Perhaps the manufacturing of pianos was
down, it is making a comeback. The use of the piano is up. And that is partly
because of the electronic piano. But even though for the past 10 years or so,
and maybe for the next 10 years, the electonic pianos has had an impact on
used as well as new accoutical piano sales, in the long run the accoutical
piano will still be around far longer than the electronic ones. Why? Because
schools, churches and the private sector will soon learn that the electonic
instruments they buy today, are not only obsolete in 2 or 3 years, 10 years
from now, when the elctronic componets are no longer available to fix them,
they will become useless. The church, school, or individual, will then have to
decide wether to spend another 3- 4K buying another electronic instrument,
that will only last 10 years, or buy the used accoutical piano they sold 10
years ago, that is still going strong. 

Piano tuners will never lack for work, as long as there are hundereds of
thousands of pianos around. And as the older uprights and grands are finally
hauled off to the junk yard, the new pianos, which are made better today than
they were 25-50 years ago, will still be around for a long time for us to tune
and repair, and even rebuild. 

Willem Blees  RPT
St. Louis