<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Dale - you bring up two concepts: small shops and cars.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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).</div><div><br></div><div>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?</div><div><br></div><div>Terry Farrell</div><div><br></div><br><div><div>On Oct 19, 2012, at 12:54 PM, Dale Erwin wrote:</div><br><blockquote type="cite"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif">
<div><div id="AOLMsgPart_1_447e5a16-8055-47a5-8a17-1d60f084b3f9"><div class="WordSection1"><div class="MsoNormal"><font face="arial, helvetica" size="2"> Question; If the factory rebuild carries the same quality and </font><font face="arial, helvetica">warranty</font><font face="arial, helvetica" size="2"> as new, why should anyone ever buy a new piano? (<font color="#0000cd">They aren't. In this economy, there buying used and rebuilt.)</font>Aren't they kind of shooting themselves in the foot here?----Greg</font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><font color="#0000cd"><font face="arial, helvetica" size="2"> Yes, they shoots themselves and certainly without our help</font></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><font color="#0000cd"><font face="arial, helvetica" size="2"> Dennis E., Ron N and I looked at an A-2 in Rochester 2005 that had been </font><font face="arial, helvetica">just</font><font face="arial, helvetica" size="2"> 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.</font></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><font color="#0000cd"><font face="arial, helvetica" size="2"> I guess I'm ticked because the marketing is personally insulting to me and many, many of you. </font></font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><font color="#0000cd"><font face="arial, helvetica" size="2">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.</font></font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><font color="#0000cd"><font face="arial, helvetica" size="2"> 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. </font></font><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: small; color: rgb(0, 0, 205); ">Heck they're happy for the exposure. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: small; color: rgb(0, 0, 205); "> So the truth is, that if someone buys a product from anyone, it belongs to them.....and if they wish to rebuild, modify,codify, </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: small; color: rgb(0, 0, 205); ">or hot</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: small; color: rgb(0, 0, 205); "> rod it to higher</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: small; color: rgb(0, 0, 205); "> levels of performance, </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: small; color: rgb(0, 0, 205); ">doesn't that speak well of the basic version, the basic platform, that it has </span><u style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: small; color: rgb(0, 0, 205); ">that </u><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: small; color: rgb(0, 0, 205); ">kind of potential. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><font color="#0000cd" face="arial, helvetica" size="2">I'm just saying</font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><font face="arial, helvetica" size="2" color="#0000cd">Dale</font></div>
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