[CAUT] 1098; My faulty math?

[Richard Brekne]

Hi Jim

A very nicely balance post me thinks. Sums things up nicely.  Your 
conclusion about buying 5 P22's along with Davids about the U7's does 
indeed make sense seen from an isolated perspective, and I think I would 
have no problem making that point from a cost effective point of view in 
just about any consultant situation I can imagine ever being a part of.  
That said, as part of an over all All One Piano School package deal.... 
one has other considerations that easily can way outweigh this one. If, 
for example we are talking 10 instruments out of 100 where 90 others are 
grands of sorts.... well you see where this can easily go. 

As to the matter of how they sound.... again I feel we need to be 
careful getting into this side of things.  To begin with I restate what 
I earlier stated... its not really part of our job to enter the 
subjective realm of piano performance unless it has something directly 
to do with our job description.  I would be further skeptical if the 
technician involved was not a pianist... or even close. I'm all for 
being seen as a colleague ... but that kind of respect doesn't come 
free.  Heck... CAUT and the PTG cant even come up with a truly credible 
form of certification that guarantees any of us actually know enough 
about what we are doing to defend taking money for this work :) ! If one 
has on the other hand earned this kind of  respect through years of 
experience... well play your hand as you see it.  But if you are playing 
a bluff and get caut... :) 

Cheers
RicB


    All,

    After 5 years of tuning 12 1098s I gotta admit that I like them.
    Yea, quirky, and they require a solid tuning technique (Seems they
    require about 5-10 minutes more than other uprights) but the sound
    and touch are great. Never thought I'd say that. :-)

    Now, here is a very different problem with them that we have here at
    BYU. Our procedure has been to buy new uprights every 18 years. sell
    the old ones before they get too beat up. We can't do that with the
    1098s. Too expensive, and we can't get the bucks back out of them.

    Here is an example;

    20 years ago we bought P22s for about $2,000.00 and sold them this
    year for $1,600.00 in fairly good condition, people happy to buy
    them. Do the math. Net cost, not counting inflation, etc. is $400.00
    over 20 years, or $20.00 per year!!!! How can that be??

    If we buy a 1098 today for say $15,000.00 (???, I don't know the
    current price) and 20 years from now sell it, we certainly won't get
    top dollar for it! Maybe $5,000.00? Then we'd have to buy a new
    piano. Maybe $20,000.00? The numbers don't work at all. That's about
    $500.00 or so per year X 20 pianos each year... Then we have to fork
    out an amount of money that would purchase about 5 P22s? That's why
    we won't do it. The math doesn't favor it.

    Jim Busby BYU