[pianotech] green piano with bass bridge problem

[Terry Farrell]

Don't laugh. You should see what they do at the local university piano  
sale each year.  A local dealer makes an agreement with the university  
- my understanding is that they give a percent of the sales to the  
school for letting them use the floor space. Then this local dealer  
(they sell pianos built in NY) trucks over all the pianos they've had  
trouble selling, AND oodles of other dealers (that sell this same  
brand of piano made in NY) all around the country (or at least the  
southeast, midwest and northeast) ship their been-sittin'-on-the- 
showroom-floor-too-many-years pie-anners down to the local university.  
Well, I shouldn't say they "ship" them exactly - that sounds too  
professional - actually they load them onto semi trailers and truck  
them down to Tampa - and so as not to be late for the show, they get  
here a week early where they sit in the trailer for the better part of  
a week. Oh, and did I mention that this annual sale is conducted in  
July? In Tampa, Florida? 95-degree, sunny most of the day with  
thunderstorms and tons of rain in the late afternoon Tampa? Sitting in  
the trailer in the HOT Florida sun in July high-humidity Tampa?

What are these jokers thinking?

Terry Farrell

On Nov 10, 2010, at 10:34 PM, Tom Driscoll wrote:

>
> Subject: Re: [pianotech] green piano with bass bridge problem
>
> When I was at WITCC, ('77/'78) there was a truckload sale of "Grand"  
> pianos at a local hotel.
> I think the "grand" moniker came from the price tag...
>
> Conrad Hoffsommer
>
> Conrad,
>   I saw the same sales model in Florida in the 1970's. They would  
> show up in small towns at the local shopping center with a tractor  
> trailer full of these things ,a big tent ,some smaller delivery  
> trucks and advertise on the local radio station.
> A  third party financing company approved credit on the spot and  
> later that day you had a brand new piano with a moth proofed  
> action , a genuine luan mahogany sounding panel and real copper bass  
> strings for around $900.00.
>   Here in Massachusetts I see a few each year that surprisingly have  
> yet to fall apart. Typically however  the back assembly fails with  
> the top of the posts warping along with glue joint failures galore and
> the legs tend to fall off if you stare at them for more than a few  
> minutes.
> If I remember the parent company was Marantz or Kincaid. These  
> things made the worst of the Aeolian's look good!
> Tom D.
>

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