[pianotech] who pays?

[Terry Farrell]

Dale - you bring up two concepts: small shops and cars.

When Mario Andretti (or whomever races cars now-a-days) needs a new race car, where does he go? The Chevy dealer (auto factory) to buy a Corvette? I don't think so. Maybe he goes to a Ferrari dealer to buy a Ferrari. Hmmm, nope not there either. He goes to a small specialty shop where race cars are designed from the ground up and hand built for the desired performance goals.

The only difference between pianos and cars is that the piano hasn't changed significantly in 120 years - so why start from scratch, when a great cost savings can be had by starting with a worn out shell of a piano (with arguably only minor compromises made by the old shell design).

So why do professional pianists go to a piano dealer to buy a factory-built piano? Do violinists go to the Guarneri Violin Company or the Stradivarius & Sons Piano Company? Do they buy rebuilt violins from the Guarneri Violin Company? No, small specialty shops do this kind of work. I think a large part of the reason S&S is able to get away with their marketing material is that the availability of very high performance pianos from the small shops is a relatively new phenomena - yes?

Terry Farrell


On Oct 19, 2012, at 12:54 PM, Dale Erwin wrote:

>  Question; If the factory rebuild carries the same quality and warranty as new, why should anyone ever buy a new piano? (They aren't. In this economy, there buying used and rebuilt.)Aren't they kind of shooting themselves in the foot here?----Greg
> 
>  Yes, they shoots themselves and certainly without our help
>   Dennis E., Ron N and I looked at an A-2 in Rochester 2005 that had been just restored in the Stwy Restoration center and was on display there. We ran a crown string across the bottom and no residual crown. We discovered it had a freshly oil canned Genuine Steinway built soundboard and it sounded very unmusical. It had all genuine Steinway parts. Enough said.
>   I guess I'm ticked because the marketing is personally insulting to me and many, many of you. 
>   
> Just imagine the good will they could engender by spinning it differently, by saying there are quite a few small shops around the country doing a very admirable job of rebuilding our pianos ( and Large. ie. Ac pianocraft, Faust Harrison, Pianocraft (Keith Kerman) in Maryland). How about encouraging techs to use their parts instead of being so pedantic, heavy handed and isolationist.
>  
>  Look at race cars. All the american autos;... Ford,GM, Chrysler are raced highly modified and covered with endorsement logos.  I have never ever heard one of those manufacturers say if it doesn't have 5 thousand Ford parts it not a Ford. Heck they're happy for the exposure. 
>    So the truth is, that if someone buys a product from anyone, it belongs to them.....and if they wish to rebuild, modify,codify, or hot rod it to higher levels of performance, doesn't that speak well of the basic version, the basic platform, that it has that kind of potential. 
> I'm just saying
> 
> Dale
>  
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