Jim: I'd issue an open invitation to you or any of your piano faculty to see a Nossaman D here at SMU. This kind of work can be done for around a third (and certainly less than half) of the cost of new. The outcome is better than anything I've seen new so what is the down side? dp David M. Porritt, RPT dporritt at smu.edu -----Original Message----- From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Jim Busby Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 4:50 PM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: [CAUT] SD10 - Final thoughts Ron O., Ron N, Del, All, After contemplating all the posts, we're planning a rebuild of this SD10. Thanks to all! Ron, your thoughts on "why" institutions don't usually go for rebuilds/rebuilders (below) are at the heart of an important issue. The "bean counters" especially seem to deem a rebuilt as a second class citizen, and overcoming this ignorance can appear nearly impossible. The other dynamics you mention are real as well. However, with the current economic woes, selling this may be easier to do, if the cost is far enough below the cost of a new 9'. And that's really sad, because if a piano indeed has "quality craftsmanship" and good design, even if it costs more than "new" it would be well worth it! I'm thinking how great it would be if one of you rebuilt this, and we put it in a hall having pianists think it was "new" how they would most certainly like it. I'm thinking of how we might orchestrate this whole thing. Having piano faculty visit such pianos might help too. Lots to ponder. Thanks again to all. Jim Busby BYU >>>... Without quality craftsmanship good design is worth nothing. One of the major difficulties with institutions, and it has been happening throughout my entire 34 year career in the business, is that they have this un-informed attitude that once a concert piano is worn out it can no longer be returned to the performance levels of a new piano, so successive instruments get put further down the rehearsal room chain until they are finally disposed of as hopeless wrecks. Just a re-string and hammers doesn't return a piano with a 'dead' board to health. But since hammers and strings is all that most institutional pianos ever get in the way of 'rebuilding', the myth continues as each instrument works its way down the rehearsal-room line to certain-death. Furthermore, to the dealer's delight, he/she can load the problems with the traded piano onto the last rebuilder who worked on it because, as all dealers know, soundboards never die as they grow old, they only sound that way. The truth is that with many of these pianos, provided that the rim hasn't de-laminated and that enough mass of quality wood was used for the rim and belly, they can be rebuilt with the best of contemporary thinking to transform them into a piano which would simply run-rings around the factory fodder which comes from writing another goddamn check for another goddamn new instrument. But this story never gets to be told, because there's no golden-under-the-table handshake for the institutional rep who is negotiating the deal, when he/she is dealing only with a rebuilder. The gravy-train goes on while no-one gives a damn, because all the right nests are being thoroughly feathered. Ron O. <<<
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