Dave, My opinion - the only way to go on this is to select. There are far too many variances with Steinways to put your reputation, and sanity, at risk by dealing with a "less than wonderful" instrument. Our most recent D purchase was before my time here, in 1990. It is a nice piano, but not inspiring. It was not selected, just ordered. We have a wonderful Hamburg D in the same hall. We have to lock and limit the Hamburg use, otherwise the NY would get 1/4 the use of the Hamburg. No, it's not because the Hamburg is shiny; they both have a polyester finish. I don't think I would fight the new piano crowd. I assume from your question they want a Steinway. I would instead work with them on determining which brand they wish to pursue (Hamburg or NY) and work out a way to go with a faculty member you can agree with to select the right piano. The dealer or factory should pick up the tab, as they are the ones that want their instrument on your stage. Of course a potential problem of selecting is you may be limited to the pianos on hand, choosing the best of a bunch of mediocre pianos. I would make it clear that you must find a piano you really want, even if it takes more than one trip. The concert piano market is a buyers market; use it to your advantage. ________________________ Rick Florence Senior Piano Technician Arizona State University School of Music -----Original Message----- From: caut-bounces at ptg.org on behalf of David M. Porritt Sent: Sun 5/20/2007 6:21 AM To: 'College and University Technicians' Subject: [CAUT] New A few days ago I wrote about our killer half-octave and asked for suggestions. Again I want to thank all who responded with many good suggestions some of which I'm going to try to implement soon. There are some (many?) who think the only solution is purchasing a new D so I'm asking you all for your experience. Have any of your schools bought a new D recently that was really great? I have to say that the new Ds I've seen lately - including one we bought in 1993 - have been somewhat less than wonderful. I'm hoping that my experience is atypical and that many of you have seen and worked on some wonderful ones. I really need honest answers from you. As much as I would prefer to have a remanufactured/redesigned piano, the We-Need-A-New-D people might have a louder and more credible voice than mine. If this be the case I'd love to think that we have a chance to have a really good piano. Thanx! dave __________________________ David M. Porritt, RPT Meadows School of the Arts Southern Methodist University Dallas, TX 75275 dporritt at smu.edu -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/ms-tnef Size: 3863 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20070520/ef0122a1/attachment.bin
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