Hi all-----I've worked for 5 dealers(as a independent contractor) in my life as a technician: 1. (1975-78) Cecil White & Sons Pianos, Atlanta, GA----where I apprenticed and learned the basics of the work. 2.(1981-83) Angelus Piano Co., West LA---a store run by a blind technician and his wife---he loved my tuning. He sold a lot of Yamahas, prepped 'em good, had a HUGE number of rental pianos in homes (1600) 3. (1983-88)Sherman Clay, at their flagship LA store, and then later, same store in Orange County (Irvine, Anaheim, Newport beach----where I became intimately acquainted with the modern American Steinway, worked with Kenyon Brown, a true wizard of piano prep, and was paid to spend 2 weeks with Bill Garlick at the Steinway factory in both daytime, approved, "Steinway way" classes, and nighttime, unapproved, "the real story" classes. I also spent a month in Korea at the Sojin and Hanil factories, attempting to raise the level of quality control, and correct the most egregious production errors we were running into on their grand pianos---Sherman Clay was the largest buyer for both companies' instruments. There were so many bribe attempts from the Hanil people that it got funny after a while---cash, watches, women, TV's------it didn't work. I eventually wrote a report that resulted in the termination of Sherman Clay's purchase of Hanil pianos---because they sucked; MUCH worse than even the early Pearl Rivers. I must've supervised the preparation of thousands of those Korean PSOs. I had 3 droogies working under me, and we documented everything; there was so much charge-back warranty work, it was beyond belief.....It was good 'til 1988, and the structure of the company changed; the store managers had no control over the prep of the pianos, and everything pretty much fell apart. 4. (1998) Piano Factory, LA---this guy was like Jekyll & Hyde; when I first started, he had a whole, huge 3000sf space filled with new Bechsteins, Petrofs, Kawai RX's, rebuilt Steinways----and they all sounded and felt like big, expensive, shiny pieces of S**T. No one had done anything to them except tune them poorly. I found out later that a guy he was paying a grand a week to---on salary---had "prepared" all these pianos, and had given him a complete written account of everything he "did..." but the manager of the store (the owner was at another location) who was a really good jazz player, confided in me (after watching me for a month and deciding I was "OK"---) that the on-salary guy had never done anything; that he was just making it all up. Wow. He must have had some skeleton-in-the-closet stuff goin' on with the owner......anyway, the owner LOVED what I did to his pianos, but almost stroked out every time he had to write me a check: yelling, screaming, "you're killing my cash flow," "you're the most expensive technician in the world," "can you hold the check until the weekend?" Eeeesshh. After 6 months, I got tired of the whining, and the daggers the 'on-salary guy' would send my way every time we'd see each other, and the lack of trust, and the slow pay. 5. (2001-present) David Abell Fine Pianos, LA----the best piano store in California, I'd say. I have pretty much complete freedom to prepare the pianos---Yamaha, Schimmel, Boesendorfer, rebuilt Sty. and M&H--- so they'll sing to the maximum they're capable of. I have a trust-based relationship with the owner, and the store manager---respect both ways---and I can't imagine a better situation. If piano dealers would only realize that their business would radically increase if they treated their clients, and their pianos, with basic respect, that people can feel when they're being jived, taken advantage of, and lied to, it would be great. Is that Pollyanna-ish? Naive? All I know is that David Abell has a tremendous reputation for integrity, has the respect of ALL his peers, and sold millions of dollars worth of pianos every year out of a small, simple store, spent next to nothing on advertising, and had a good time, based on one simple thing: the Golden Rule. He didn't lie to people, and all the pianos were prepared by the best guys he could get. Nobody ever had to worry about warranties, or anything; you could trust David Abell, and that translated into both material and artistic/community/social success. Dennis Hagerty, the present owner, is wisely continuing that tradition and legacy. How inspiring. David Andersen
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