[CAUT] Inexpensive institutional piano benches

[Elwood Doss]

I would suggest getting benches with stretchers connecting the legs
about 4 inches off the floor, or retrofitting the cheap benches.  We
bought new Baldwin Studio Uprights about 8 years ago for most of our
practice rooms and after about two years I began to see damaged benches.
We retrofitted all the benches with home-made stretchers and after 5
years none of them have been damaged and all are in service.  I used a
special type of wood for the stretchers that is extremely dense, albeit
expensive, but the extra money sure paid off.  You might try that on the
cheap benches.  I'm sold on the retrofit.  I think they would hold up
better that way.

Joy!

Elwood

 

Elwood Doss, Jr., M.M.E., RPT

Piano Technician/Technical Director

Department of Music

145 Fine Arts Building

The University of Tennessee at Martin

Martin, TN  38238

731/881-1852

FAX: 731/881-7415

HOME: 731/587-5700

________________________________

From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Rob & Helen Goodale
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2008 12:35 AM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: [CAUT] Inexpensive institutional piano benches

 

The majority of the university benches have seen better days.  Most have
been broken, glued, broken again, stripped screw holes repaired, broken
yet again, etc, etc.  The pianos aren't much better so I'm not too
excited about buying nice expensive benches for cigar boxes with rubber
bands pretending to be pianos.  My hope is that most of the pianos will
be replaced within the next few years along with new benches.  In the
meantime I would like to look into buying some inexpensive benches to
keep things going for a while.

 

The benches the supply companies offer, (Schaff, Pianotek, etc), seem
decent but I would like to try to do better budget-wise.  I haven't seen
a price list for a while but I recall seeing some inexpensive Chinese
benches a while back with quality consistent with those included with
the typical Chinese import pianos.  That may be sufficient for now.  Can
anyone tell me who is distributing these benches domestically?  I would
like to get a catalog.

 

Rob Goodale, RPT

Las Vegas, NV

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