Betsy Ross Spinet

[Farrell]

Yeah, and we've all heard the story about the minority-race person the grew
up in poverty with no parents, suffered from abuse, and went on to be
happily married, get a Ph.D. and become President of some university, etc.,
etc.

I would submit that more piano students have been stymied by playing on a
poor instrument than have flourished after playing an Aeolian spinet for the
first few years of study.

This reminds me of the Frans Moore tale about a lady who exchanged her new
Steinway for another because her piano tech told her there was a
defect/abnormality in the plate. After not being happy with a couple
replacements she wanted her original piano back, only to find out that a
professional concert pianist had picked hers out from the crowd because of
its unusually wonderful character. Sure, no doubt if a piano gets messed up
during the manufacturing process, it could actually turn out better than
designed - but again, for every manufacturing error effecting a benefit,
there will be hundreds of defective pianos out there.

I really don't have that  much of a hang-up about cheap spinets. I likely
have more trouble with piano owners who don't have a clue if there is any
difference between a worn, neglected Aeolian spinet and a good condition
Yamaha upright. There are many such people. And yes, I do try to educate -
with some success and some failure. I don't want to burn every spinet. I
also make money off them.

However, I think an important thing to consider is that for most of these
pianos, a full regulation, replacing damper felt, key bushings, hammer
filing, pitch raising, tuning, and a few other odds-and-ends, would cost far
more than the piano might be worth. This is especially true when one
realizes that there are many very good condition consoles available for
between $500 and $1,000.

When I service a rat-chewed, warped, felt-hardened, 1971 Aeolian spinet with
the back splitting off, that hasn't been tuned since the free tuning from
the dealer when it was purchased, and find that a youngster has been taking
lessons for three years and playing on this thing........

Oh geeeezzzzzz. Now ya got me going........ Well, all for now. Gotta go tune
Winter, Wurlitzer, and Janssen spinets today!  Cha-ching!   ;-)

(Actually several Yamaha grands today - but I do have multi-spinet and
old-upright days every now and then...)

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Conrad Hoffsommer" <hoffsoco@martin.luther.edu>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 8:07 AM
Subject: Re: Betsy Ross Spinet


> Clyde,
>
> At 07:23 5/20/2004 -0400, you wrote:
> >Conrad,
> >
> >Good in whose eyes?
>
> The customer is always right, my friend, right???
>
>
> >It took me a few years to figure out how to respond when a customer, who
> >owns a worn-out PSO (piano shaped object), proudly says to me, "Well,
what
> >do you think of my piano?"  Since I try never to lie, this takes a little
> >fancy talk which can go in several directions.  Since they are obviously
> >in love with the "thing,"  a typical response from me would include, "The
> >main thing is that it does what you need it to do."  They usually leave
it
> >at that.
> >So I tend to agree with what you say here.  It is good in their eyes or
> >for their purposes, even if objectively I would never call it a good
piano
> >on an evaluation.
> >
> >"Good" means different things to different people.  If I am asked if a
> >piano is a good piano, I sometimes ask, "Do you mean good quality, good
> >condition or whether it will be relatively trouble-free?"  Then I know
> >better how to answer.
>
> I agree.
>
> A recent thing happened here to confirm my "no bad piano" philosophy. The
> mother of a local piano teacher recently moved to town and brought her old
> piano with her. Naturally, the daughter had me go over to attend to the
> arrival.
>
> What did I find which had started the piano teacher off on her musical
> career??  A WINTER spinet.  There's been lots of bad-mouthing of Winter
> spinets and their Æolian brethren on this list over the years. Well
> deserved, too.  I find it hard to say that they have no redeeming value if
> they are a springboard to a musical career, or even if they only offer the
> opportunity to have live music in the home.
>
> Consumer oriented/value priced/el cheapo pianos do have their value, but
> that same "good" piano would be bad in a concert setting.  As the realtors
> would say, location, location, location...
>
>
>
> Conrad Hoffsommer - Music Technician
> Luther College, 700 College Dr., Decorah, Iowa 52101-1045
> Vox-(563)-387-1204 // Fax (563)-387-1076
>
> The shortest distance between two points is under construction.
>
> _______________________________________________
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>