<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> Oh boy am I gunna have fun with this guy...   >  BRIAN SCHMIDT wrote: >  Where are guys like you coming from. I have been a "BALDWIN" dealer since 1973.   Woopeedoo.  We are educated professional piano technicians who have tuned and repaired thousands of pianos.  I think we might know just a little about the business too.     -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >  If you are an AMERICAN you should be ashamed of yourself for these comments.  Sit down and just think for a minute.....how many Baldwin pianos have >you tuned, worked on, and has contributed to your lifestyle and family income.  Take those away and give the business to the offshore companies with all their >  plastic,aluminum and synthetic parts and see how long you stay in business as a tuner.   What does being an American have to do with the reality of economics?  You may want to take note that pianos with plastic parts and aluminum rails have been around for a couple of decades now.  Most of highest quality pianos in the world have them.   Was your point that somehow these design IMPROVEMENTS were to put us all out of business?  Last I checked these pianos need tuning, regulation. repairs, and key leveling just like those without aluminum rails.  They require rebuilding and restringing too.  No, I'd have to say that I am pleased that pianos are built this way now.  The objective is to build a better piano, not to use materials that will require more maintenance just so that technicians can take a customer's money. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >  Maybe your fellow technicians should get together and buy you a one-way ticket to the orient where you can run for days tuning as many garbage pianos as you >  want....and see if they will listen to your sick complaints.   Actually I tune a lot of Asian pianos...   and in fact we do discuss them here.  Your point?  So then what you are saying is that unless it was made in the United States then its "garbage"?  Don't EVEN get me started pal. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   >  Yes, the board made a mistake with her majesty Hendricks. Steinway has floundered several times only to have a wealthy company bail them out. Tell me their >  quality control is there for the price they charge.   Steinway has never sunk this low before and certainly has never been managed so badly.  Yes like most companies they have in fact been sold and purchased a few times but they are still there and still profitable.  I don't believe that Steinway's quality control has ever approached Baldwin's low either.  Steinway has made some mistakes in the past, (i.e. teflon bushings), but then again so has every other leading world manufacturer.  Remember "New Coke"? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   >  Look at the crap the Japanese piano manufactures put in the products, charge huge prices and call it quality. Wake up American and Canadian technicians >  your talking on downgrading a great product only shows how selfish and narrow minded (maybe SMALL MINDED you really are).   So then what you are saying is that Yamaha and Kawai, arguably the two largest piano makers in the world, are building "crap"?  When was the last time you looked at a Yamaha grand?  Have you ever played a Kawai EX?  If they are "crap" then could you please explain to us why these companies are always showcased at the world's largest music competitions and have a full line of concert artists?   Would you care to discuss their annual sales figures?   Oh... and lest we forget that Baldwin has been importing pianos with their name put on them for years, all the way back to the old Kawai built "Howards" in the early seventies. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   >  If we as dealers aren't selling pianos you won't have a job. (Don't forget you are "where the rubber meets the road") Just >  in case you don't understand the saying....you are the last in the chain of the piano world and without good manufactures "staying in business" you >  will be and probably with your attitude be digging ditches.   Oh I see, us "low life" piano techs are at the mercy of the dealers and are dependent upon you to keep us employed.  And since Baldwin is the only piano manufacturer in the world we had better pray they stay in business or we will be "digging ditches" for a living.  That coming from you gives ditch diggers a bad name. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   >  Shut your mouth get out there tune, repair and be happy for any North American product that puts money in your pocket or get out of the business....we don't >  need whiners and crybabies like you in the industry.   Oh yes sir, I'll just get myself right out there.  How narrow minded of me to tune anything else but American built pianos.  Oh, by the way... have you ever considered where YOUR business would be without US?  I wonder what your sales figures would be like if your floor pianos were never tuned.  Perhaps we should pass your e-mail along to the techs in your area and see if they would still be willing to tune for you knowing that you rank them just one notch above "ditch diggers".  On the contrary, I don't think the piano industry needs "whiners and crybabies"  like you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >  I hope you don't have kids because with your attitude and example they are going to grow up with a rotten attitude. It sounds to me like you may have been dropped on your head a few times when you were a kid.   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >  We never heard from you when Baldwin paid you and things were good did we. What are you talking about? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   > It is easy to step on someone when they are down instead of lending a helping hand to them and keeping a good North American company going. So what are you suggesting, we all volunteer to run the Baldwin assembly line for a month at no charge to help them bail out?   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Question? Who would you support if a war broke out tomorrow? Oh pleeeeeease!  Perhaps you haven't noticed that pianos are built in other places besides Asia as well?   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >  Don't forget about where your bread is buttered. This is a good wake -up call for all of us especially you technicians. Instead of being happy there are >  pianos out there to tune and repair you have to go a run them down...   Well I'm sure we are all very grateful that you pointed that out. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >  Well if you are so smart why aren't you in the factories designing them if you think you know better?   Many techs are.  Who do you think designs them ding dong, Martha Stewart? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >  If you think the other companies aren't in financial trouble as well, you had better think again.. Yamaha, Kawai have >  been for years.. Their companies are smart and cover it up and you aren't made aware of all the problems. Believe me they are in no better shape >  over there than we are. Now where in the HELL did you come up with that?  I would absolutely LOVE to see you back that up!  So there is some big piano conspiracy out there?  Have you compared Yamaha's stock quotes with Baldwin's lately?  How do you figure that they are covering up some huge financial failure?   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >  Note!!! the piano market is shrinking thanks to the high-tech world and you had better clean up your attitude along with all your other technician friends or >  start looking for a new vocation. Oh, well I'm mighty grateful you set us straight on that.  I'll go right out and start looking for a new occupation right away. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >  "GO BOB JONES AND BALDWIN PIANO". Oh.... talleyhoe!     So from what you are saying can we assume that there are no non-American built pianos on your floor?  Are you ONLY selling Baldwin?  If Baldwin goes away for good will you be going out of business too?  (We could only hope).  Might I strongly suggest that you pull your feet, (and whatever else) out of your mouth and visit a NAMM show sometime.  You might be amazed to find that there are a lot of non-American brands out there that are far from junk.  In fact you might be surpised that there are some that kick some serious Baldwin butt.  Perhaps you would even consider selling some of them, (perish the thought). In all seriousness there are hundreds of techs from all over the world on this list.  Chances are extremely high that several techs in your area are now well aware of what you think of them.  You may have a bit of explaining to do.  I wish I could be there to watch. Rob Goodale, RPT Las Vegas, NV </body> </html>