I'm a full time tech. at Ball State University that's a Steinway School. They became one about 5 years ago and I've been here going on 3 now. So I had no input on the subject. They purchased 5 B's, 2 D's and about 30 or so Boston 118S. They had probably 2 dozen old Steinway grands of different models many with not the greatest rebuild jobs. They really should have took a good look at the inventory before jumping on board because they had a lot of piano that should have been replaced and with buying the Steinways and Boston's the money doesn't go very far. I don't know if this is true, but I've heard from different faculty that the administration made the final decision as many of them would have preferred something other than the 118's. Of course their thinking is the recruiting side of it. Since I've been here they have purchased 2 used, but in good condition Yamaha grands and one of them is in our main recital hall. Of course the Steinway is the one that gets played and way too much. They still had a lot of old studio pianos and some grands various kinds in the inventory. A few months ago the Steinway dealer requested the inventory so they could turn in the numbers so I don't know how many of the old pianos were turned in on that list. Like with most schools too many pianos for one tech. to be able to tune and maintain on a consistent basis. I only have a measly $3,000.00 maintenance budget. I don't know if this is going to do any good, but I'm going to the SoM director and show her the price of Steinway parts to see if that will help increase my budget any. -- Tony Graves RPT Piano Technician School of Music Ball State University Muncie, IN 47306 (765) 285-0053 On 12/8/07 10:00 PM, "Martin Snow" <martinsnowpianos at yahoo.com> wrote: > hi folks > I'd be interested to hear experiences from those > techs. working at schools that have become ''All > Steinway''. Is it very restrictive on the purchase > choice of instruments. What happened to existing > inventory. Was administration and faculty won over by > becoming ''All Steinway''. How are the Boston pianos > holding up etc etc.......... > > > > ______________________________________________________________________________ > ______ > Be a better friend, newshound, and > know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. > http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ > >
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