Good post, Ron: One thing I do not believe has been mentioned by anyone is that pianos are not settled in at the factory by very many manufacturers these days. You know, do a rough regulation, roll the piano into the soundproof room, turn on the banger, and run out the door. That helps to settle in the felts and leathers. Then re-regulate before it goes out the door to the dealer. Even if the manufacturer has done a half decent regulation, it's not going to last very long without the pounding in, and if the dealer does the prep, that won't last long either as the piano settles in from being played at the home. No matter how careful the work done, it's still a moving target until the piano settles in. I followed enough of the pianos that I prepped as a dealer to see how quickly careful work can disappear as the piano settles in at the home instead of at the factory. And most pianos are probably getting nothing more than a single rough regulation at the factories. I suppose a dealer could buy a banger, but that only increases the amount of work that he is doing for the most part for free already. Will -----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
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC