At 09:46 PM 10/05/02 -0400, Terry wrote:
>
>Oh, paaalease! All pianos of decent and better quality are made to stand
>up to similar use. They are not fragile.
Our definitions of "decent quality" and "fragile" must not be quite the same.
>I wonder if you would feel the same way if you just paid $14,000 for a new
>brand X vertical and the dealer told you that "you'll get used to that
>dinging noise, and that
I would feel the same way others have felt and probably would have done
what others have done in the past: contact the factory and if that doesn't
work have my lawyers contact the factory.
>backframe "oh, that's just cosmetic - we can put a shim in the crack!". I
can pretty
>well guarantee you that words like "can be discovered and cherished over
the years"
>will in fact NOT be on the tip of your tongue.
I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I have customers who have had similar
things happen with other dealers and products too. They react as you do
when they see the ads.
>
>I wholeheartedly disagree with you that they are "original" paintings.
>Each piano of a given model is made to the exact same design.
In the brand Y that seems to be so since they are designed to be built in
an assembly-line manner the same way computers and TV sets are made. The
only real difference between any two black polyester pianos of the same
model is in the soundboard (or perhaps the wood in the bridges), and even
there they are closely matched to the model's price break.
>There may be more hand labor in brand X than Y, but they are far from each
>one being an original.
I was told long ago by people who should know that there is one specific
reason why each one is an "original", and I'm speaking only about grands
since verticals are another story. If you fold back the front part of the
lid on a brand X grand (or most fine grands I think) you will note that
unlike the mass-produced brand Y pianos what was the front edge of the
folded part now sits some distance away from the long edge of the lid. This
distance will be minutely (sometimes vastly it seems) different on every
single hand-built piano depending on how the case is assembled, and this
angle will be reflected in various other places throughout the piano. I'll
leave it to those who know much more than I do to comment on this effect,
but it means that no two will ever really be alike no matter how consistent
they are in the rest of their construction. It means that very often the
designs can only be followed closely, not exactly.
>Every deviation from spec falls into one of two categories: within
>tolerance, or error - not an artists whim.
Please forgive me if I'm wrong, but specs and tolerances mean different
things in different situations although in theory they should be the same.
In an assembly line very few decisions about them need to be made by the
workers. Tolerances are tight and creativity is almost unnecessary because
every part and every case is just like the last and the next. Things are
consistent because they have to be.
In the "hand-made" world where you start off with no two cases being quite
the same some creativity and adjusting/bending of tolerances is required.
Maybe I'm totally off base here, but unfortunately for us, there is also
the chance that a union worker being paid piecework wants to squeeze that
last job in before going home for the weekend and takes the gamble that
tolerances can probably be bent a long way and still squeak by other
workers and QC.
To be fair, brand Y builds premium hand-made instruments too. In order to
compete with brand X in that market they apparently have to build them in a
laboratory with their best craftspeople making sure the tolerances on their
best materials are kept within very strict levels. I've heard on the "brand
K" hand-made pianos a simple broken hammershank will cost you as much as a
dinner for two with a fine bottle of wine at a good restaurant and after a
lecture on how ignorant you were to allow such a thing to happen it could
take six weeks to have it custom milled in Japan and returned to you.
> > possible. It gives the technician the chance to show what they can do, not
> > just relax and let the job almost do itself.
>
>I have yet to run into a brand Y piano that regulates its own dampers!
Very funny.
> From the standpoint of a technician, I am not crabbing about brand X. I
> am simply stating a general observation regarding how they hold up over
> the years compared to some other pianos, most notably brand Y.
May I elaborate on your "general observation"? Remember that brand X was
building very successful pianos 30 years before brand Y even thought of
building their first reed organ. Over the long term they hold up well
enough that it isn't unusual for people to be still playing on instruments
that were nearly 100 years old when the first brand Y grands began to be
imported to this continent in any number and if you recall those first
instruments didn't hold up well at all here. Many of those brand X pianos
have been rebuilt or have undergone major reconditioning or customization,
but there are still quite possibly more brand X grands around than any
other North American maker and unless they've been totally destroyed they
will likely always be around.
As for how they hold up "over the years", if you compare them to many other
high-end high-performance product they seem to hold up fine. If some of
them are problematic due to design or construction faults they join the
ranks of all the Ferraris, Jags, Volvos and even Gulfstreams that owners
complain spend as much time in the shop as they do being used. And to
think they could have just bought one of these new improved mass-produced
cars don't need a tuneup or an oil change for the entire warranty period
and gotten the same satisfaction out of it. Instead of spending the extra
money on service over the years they can spend it on a new one when it gets
more expensive to fix it than replace it.
That is not to apologize for or justify sloppy workmanship when it isn't
necessary. I don't like it any more than anyone else but if I'm getting
paid to fix it and I can, I will do it with all the craftsmanship and
discretion I can muster.
> From the standpoint of the consumer, having purchased a new brand X
> vertical before getting into this field, I am indeed crabbing. And I got
> something to crab about! ;-0
I agree 100%. You shouldn't have gotten the run-around you did.
Unfortunately you're dealing with people, and as much as we'd like to be
able to depend on people to always do the right thing sometimes it doesn't
happen. At that point you have to go to the right people if you can figure
out who they are. Or, as you and others have done, you can become one of
the right people and do it yourself.
Finally, you really shouldn't have been sold a 1098 in the first place.
There are eminently more suitable verticals for a private home that will
give you much more enjoyment for less money and there are much more
suitable locations for a 1098.
The above is, of course, merely my long-winded opinion. I may have to put
on two flame suits after this one!
Regards...
John
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