[CAUT] becoming an all Steinway School

[Jim Busby]

Martin,

Besides my fulltime job here at BYU I service the 35 Steinways at "Snow College", a "Steinway School". Here is my take on it;

1. Boston 118S are NOT what I ever would choose. (126Ss are much better but more costly) Our 12 118Ss are affected too much by humidity changes, and the cheap hardware, benches, etc. are a pain. I had to "prep" the 12 118Ss twice to get them stable. Hammer butt felts fall off regularly, regulation and tunings go south if you breathe heavily on them... No, I'm not a fan.

2. 1098s (12 of them) NOT a fan of these either! There are many better pianos out there for much less $. Steinway snobs will pooh pooh this, but I'd pit our Schimmel against the 1098s any day! (Flame suit on!)

3. Read and re-read Rick Florence's post. I agree with everything except the servicing thing, in my case. Snow College wasn't going to pay near what I wanted so I refused the job. Steinway threatened to revoke the warrantees unless they got a "Steinway tech". I got the job and the pay I requested. Maybe it was all smoke, but the threat worked.

4. The Satin finishes on the Steinway grands are soooo easily scratched!! We have covers, but... Last week a girl set a FLUTE case on an M and scratched it beyond a small buffing job.

5. We at BYU WON'T give up the diversity we have in our concert halls. We have a 9' Shigeru, a CF and a Hamburg and a NY D. Artists don't always choose Steinways, and it's nice to have variety for students to compare/contrast.

6. What's not talked about is what will happen 20 years from now. Snow College has NO replacement plan, rebuilding budget, etc. Sure, I'll take 'em until I retire...

There is probably more I could say about it but in a nutshell, I would like more Steinway grands here at BYU but NONE of the uprights.

Jim Busby BYU and Snow College, Ephraim, Utah



-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Martin Snow
Sent: Saturday, December 08, 2007 8:00 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: [CAUT] becoming an all Steinway School

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..........


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