I agree on all accounts. Gee, Ron, David and I are all agreeing? Wow! I have always felt compelled to compliment Yamaha for their continued Service Bonds. Even if it is piddles for pay. It is one way to at least make sure their pianos once sold stay in good shape on two levels. 1. They are making sure that their pianos are properly maintained for the first year. (Supposing someone qualified is working on them) I.e., in fairly top condition (for $35) and it even gets a touch up regulation etc., if necessary. But, usually, they do not require much other than tunings. As you or someone mentioned, it is too bad that other manufacturer's have not yet followed suit doing something similar. 2. They are getting the client started on the right path of proper maintenance. After the first two tunings, it is then up to the clients to make sure they stay on top of things. Many of them do, at least for the first few years anyway because they realize and have been trained by us, as for the reasons why. Jer -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Ron Nossaman Sent: Friday, November 27, 2009 6:11 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Service bond price David Love wrote: > They could be paying 100% more and still falling way short. It depends on the intent. I doubt anyone (except some buyers) expects concert readiness for $35, even 20 years ago. It's always seemed to me that both manufacturers and dealers are typically concerned with the requirements of the average piano buyer, and anything beyond that doesn't particularly benefit them in most cases. I've had dealers who weren't at all concerned about prepping little Suzie's new console or that small grand Mom had always dreamed of, beyond moderate function, but were very concerned about a piano going into a high profile venue that had the potential to make them look either good, or bad. This doesn't strike me as particularly evil as a means of survival, but it's difficult to read the tea leaves as to where to draw the line between solidly meeting realistic requirements, and spending the time and money trying to make a Mazarati for all occasions, at a Yugo price. I've seen dealers bankrupt trying to deliver a better product than the manufacturer supplied too. Nature rewards unnecessarily wasteful or impractical species with extinction, and balance with adaptability seems to have the best chance if sufficiently greased with rationalization. I do think it's interesting that Yamaha (Japanese built) used to come out of the crate in better shape than most pianos I've seen after dealer prep, and Yamaha was the only manufacturer with a program intending to even minimally maintain some level of function through the first year. Even if they only offered pittance toward that intent, it was an indication of intent missing elsewhere in the industry. These days, I'm wondering if Yamahas sold in other countries are in better state of prep out of the crate than the stuff we're getting here now. Like they're supplying the quality level that sells in this country after all those years of the Walmart marketing model. Ah well, I'm not above buying a cheap tool if it does what I need, so I'm part of that problem. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitant. Just rambling, mostly. Ron N _____ avast! Antivirus <http://www.avast.com> : Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 091127-1, 11/27/2009 Tested on: 11/27/2009 7:00:11 PM avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2009 ALWIL Software.
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