S & S Model M price

[John Musselwhite]

If I may be so bold, on behalf of everyone here I'd like to welcome
representatives of Steinway & Sons, and we look forward to their
participation in the Pianotech mailing list.  The fact that service
representatives from piano manufacturers, suppliers to the piano industry
and even concert artists (Hello Mr. Kuerti!) are here shows the strength of
this mode of communication.

You will find that this (the internet) is a very informal medium compared to
what is normally dealt with in a commercial enterprise. This list,
originally meant for College and University technicians, has over 300
participants and most of us are working piano technicians. Since pianotech
is informal and is merely a sharing of ideas and techniques rather than a
place for "official announcements" (although I think they are welcome too),
it would be helpful if those who reply from Steinway would sign their names
just as other manufacturer's representatives do.

Personally, I'd like to know Scott, Gary or Michael's opinions (or
anecdotes) on a subject rather than reading something that looks like it's
gone through a lawyer first. <grin>   The Pianotech list is not the New York
Times or even the PTJournal, just a group of technicians asking and
answering questions from our peers. As a reminder, all old messages ARE
available on the WWW Pianotech Search Page just so everyone is aware of it.

I might add that it would be helpful if EVERYONE signed their messages,
since many mail programs don't include your name anywhere and it's nice to
know who is writing a message. For that matter, there are many cryptic names
in the subscribers list too, including a suspicious number of "Ron Berry"s
which makes it hard to look up who wrote what.

But you'll get used to it I'm sure... we did!  This list has been a valuable
resource for the working technician thanks to the input of all the
participants who take the time to reply both publicly and privately to
messages here.

On to the subject of this thread (finally):

At 01:00 PM 03/04/96 -0700, Steinway (?) wrote:

>Please contact your local dealer for an examination of this instrument.
Without
>seeing this piano it would be a very big guess of it's worth.

If I may make yet another comment, more than a few of us on this list are
the people the local dealers engage to do the evaluation. We all know that
it is impossible to do a proper appraisal on a mailing list, but many of us
have seen enough examples in various states of disrepair to take an educated
guess and share that knowledge.

There are also those reading this who sell used pianos including "vintage"
S&S, and hopefully they'll share some of their knowledge of what their
approximate value would be in their area. This might give all of us a better
idea of the value of the instrument even if the general condition is
"assumed" and the value is just a rough estimation.

Just for interest's sake, in the last few years I've seen more than a
handful of Ms here in Canada transfer ownership. The lowest were priced from
8.5K in a private sale for a beautiful (and highly playable!) original 1920s
Hamburg, to 18K for a shoddily "rebuilt" one with non-descript parts to over
30 for a prime M barely off warranty. The sale prices of the first two
should have been reversed IMO, but I wasn't responsible for the original
evaluations. The value of an individual instrument is something which must
be determined by inspection, but we in the field always need all the help we
can get to make a final determination of that value.

Speaking of "value" there was a piano listed as the "second-oldest Steinway
in existance" recently advertised in rec.music.makers.piano. In case anyone
is interested, the asking price was  *1.2 million American dollars*
($1,200,000 in case people like to see zeros).  At first I thought it was a
prank, but apparantly it is a serious advertisement despite the seemingly
(to me, anyway) unrealistic expectations of the owner. From what I
understand, the ad is somewhat misleading as well, since the piano is
apparantly the second oldest ART CASE  Steinway. Could someone from the
factory confirm that and perhaps describe it briefly? No comments on the
price are necessary as I think most of us just chuckle when we see that many
zeros attached to any object's value. <g>

By coincidence, as I'm writing this there is a documentary on Horowitz (much
of it shot in his living room) playing on CBC Television and his Steinway is
featured prominently (of course). The program is part of a series called
"Adrienne Clarkson Presents" in case anyone is interested.

                John

(ps: To anyone who replies to this it would be of GREAT help if you didn't
quote the whole thing. My messages are known to be far too long already and
most people don't need to read the same thing again OR have it fill up their
mailboxes!  jm)

John Musselwhite, RPT
Calgary, Alberta Canada
musselj@cadvision.com