[CAUT] CCM goes "All Steinway"

[Richard Brekne]

Hi Michale.

I respectfully must disagree with your conclusion below.  Both Wapin and 
Stanwood can indeed compete, as can Nossaman, Overs, Fandrich and the 
RC&S supporters, and everyone else.  Indeed they are doing just fine... 
tho indeed the road is slow. Still, the word is spreading that there are 
very credible and viable alternatives to Steinways, and / or 
enhancements / modifications that can be made to Steinways.  Steinway 
plays the market as it must... but thats the world for you.

We see  more and more Stanwood over here and in increasingly sensible 
approaches. The last Nordic convention quite effectively planted and 
enthused 60 or so technicians in the North of Europe.  Even a couple of 
the big skeptics such as the head of Sauter were stirred in a direction 
they have completely resisted before. Wapin is still unknown over 
here... but then the kind of total rebuilding done so often in the 
states is quite a bit less frequent here in Europe... tho that too is 
changing.

Tho in a given competition such as an isolated purchasing process for a 
big school players like Stanwood and Wapin may not even be on the board, 
their arena of competition lies elsewhere. I do not see any threat from 
Steinway that limits innovation myself. Rather... I see this coming from 
an alarming increase in production of entry level pianos (to put it 
politely) being passed off as high quality instruments.... and the 
average Joe and Martha on the street... or Kari and Ole if you will... 
being increasingly duped into believing the lines of sales folks.

Again... we are in a very complicated discussion with many many sides.  
The all Steinway school thing itself has many implications both positive 
and negative for the entire industry.

Cheers
RicB

    Hello,

    I would like to add my two cents to the discussion, as a former
    technician at CCM and inventor of the Wapin. Steinway does what it
    does best and that is promote itself.  What happens to innovation
    when there is a monopoly? There is no question it will disappear. I
    am happy for Eric and his success at CCM but I also know that it
    means that the 1929 Steinway D is being mothballed.  For those of
    you who are unaware, this stellar instrument has an incredible
    history that I won't go into here.  This was the first Wapin concert
    grand and is still to this day a superior instrument but now it as
    well as other Wapin instruments will no longer be available at CCM for
    performance. I can see that the faculty's eyes are coated with
    $$$$$. There is no way Wapin, and for that matter Stanwood, can
    compete. Some will veiw this as a good thing.  For my part I am
    deeply saddened.

    Michael Wathen
    Former Piano Tech CCM
    Former PTG member 29 years
    Presently mathematics high school teacher