<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On Mar 30, 2006, at 7:39 PM, Porritt, David wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Our grand pianos are 75% Steinway.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>Steinway Hall is trying to get us to become an "All Steinway School".<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>I can't see any benefit in that myself - well, except for only having to keep parts for Steinways.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>I certainly would not want to see a truckload of 1098s come in as I don't want to retire yet and I'm sure I would if we had 50 of those! <SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><BR></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">dp</FONT></P> <BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><DIV>I've been at a school that had 50 or more 1098s and Ks. Probably more than half of the 1098s were pre-1980 for sure, and probably older than that. The rest, mid 90s. When they're brand new, you think you're going to break your tuning hammer, but they ease up over time, and once you get the hang of it, they seem to hold tune better than anything I know of. They are what they are, but the thing about them is you just can't wear them out. They are workhorses, and that is why they make good practice room and studio pianos. There were about a half dozen Yamaha P22s that were newer there, and they just couldn't keep up. That experiment became known as the "disposable piano experiment". Tuning stability and broken strings were constant problems. But we rarely had trouble with the 1098s - the older ones anyway -- some of the newer ones had some jumpy pin issues, but so do our Baldwins here. Our 5 1098s here dating from 1957 to 1967 are in very good shape considering the abuse and neglect they are exposed to. I'm guessing we would have probably had to replace Bostons 3 or 4 times by now.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On Mar 31, 2006, at 7:25 AM, Porritt, David wrote:</DIV><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">When I</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">think of the "All Steinway" designation the feeling I get is a confined,</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">cramped one. I couldn't even fantasize about a Shigeru Kawai EX or some</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">piano that another manufacturer introduces next year because we'd be</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">contractually obligated to only the instruments of one manufacturer.</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV><DIV>It used to be that Steinway only required something like 83% or 85% of inventory to have All-Steinway status. But apparently, there have been schools which would get to that point to get the status, and then go out and add pianos of other makes to their inventory. So they have raised the percentage to 95% now.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On Mar 31, 2006, at 9:40 AM, <A href="mailto:Wimblees@aol.com">Wimblees@aol.com</A> wrote:</DIV><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">I think we should look at the designation of being an all Steinway school as being beneficial to the school, rather than for our own desires.</SPAN></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR>So, am I alone in the thinking that Steinways actually make our job easier?</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Wait till you have an inventory of 62 Baldwins.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Jeff</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>Jeff Tanner, RPT</DIV><DIV>University of South Carolina</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN> </DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>