Digital "Pianos" A True Story

[Michael Magness]

I came in late on this but do have an interesting and very true story. A
customer I began tuning for about 20 or 25 years ago had a Kimball spinet
and would have me out to tune, she lived on the outer edge of the
boondocks, twice yearly. The piano shared the room with a huge wood burning
space heater this thing was the size of a Hammond B-3 and cooked that
Kimball flat every fall. I'd pull it to pitch and then in June be back to
tune it down to pitch, they live near the cranberry marshes and the humidity
is high around there.
I just didn't notice when she stopped calling so last December('06) when she
called and asked did I remember her?No, not at first but as she described
where she lived it all came back to me. She had just bought a new piano from
one of those dealers that actually takes them out of the box before he sells
them!!! It's a George Steck not sure if it was Young Chang or Samick built
but that's not important to this story, the wood heater is still there! She
explained that she had traded off the Kimball for a Kurzweil Digital, partly
because of my urging her to move the piano or at least add a Dampp-Chaser,
neither of which she ever did and all of the problems with the piano she'd
had because of the overdrying caused by the wood heater. She'd had the
Kurzweil almost 9 years and had repairs done to it from time to time then it
stopped working entirely and she took it in to be repaired and was told the
cost of the repairs would be equal to the original purchase price of it.
That's when she decided to cut her losses and return to an acoustic piano, I
suggested a Dampp-Chaser system and she agreed, with that in place the piano
is doing much better than it's predecessor.

A few other observations on Digital "pianos". I worked for a dealership that
carried them and learned a bit about them(know your enemy)they are sampled
from an acoustic piano. I was told that Yamaha and Roland had used a 7 foot
Knight Grand (the early Yamahas and Rolands were joint ventures). My quarrel
with them is that they don't have the true piano "sound" as many others have
pointed out. There are no strings to "sing" with those being played, the
notes being played decay much more quickly than those of an acoustic, they
especially lose any semblance of "real" piano sound in the upper and lower
registers. The touch is an artificial copy of what someone thought a piano
should play like.
When my customers ask my opinion I point out to them that I don't find them
to be a personal threat because I'm 59 and if all acoustic production halted
today I would have enough work for the rest of my life. I then proceed to
point out the above things coupled with the fact of the 90 day parts and
labor warranty and the 1 year on parts offered by most. Compare that to the
normal 10 year parts and labor from most acoustic manufacturers, so when
their acoustic piano is leaving warranty the question would be, can the
parts be found for the digital? If so would it be worth fixing?

The dealer I worked for used to say that the digitals had replaced the
spinet in the pricing structure. What he failed to point out was that as
terrible as some of those spinets were they lasted more than 10 years, many
more. They also sounded better!
Just my opinion! <grin>
Mike
-- 
Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
Michael Magness
Magness Piano Service
608-786-4404
www.IFixPianos.com
email mike at ifixpianos.com
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