[CAUT] becoming an all Steinway School

[Graves, Tony J.]

I'm a full time tech. at Ball State University that's a Steinway School.
They became one about 5 years ago and I've been here going on 3 now.  So I
had no input on the subject.  They purchased 5 B's, 2 D's and about 30 or so
Boston 118S.  They had probably 2 dozen old Steinway grands of different
models many with not the greatest rebuild jobs. They really should have took
a good look at the inventory before jumping on board because they had a lot
of piano that should have been replaced and with buying the Steinways and
Boston's the money doesn't go very far. I don't know if this is true, but
I've heard from different faculty that the administration made the final
decision as many of them would have preferred something other than the
118's.  Of course their thinking is the recruiting side of it.
Since I've been here they have purchased 2 used, but in good condition
Yamaha grands and one of them is in our main recital hall.  Of course the
Steinway is the one that gets played and way too much. They still had a lot
of old studio pianos and some grands various kinds in the inventory.
A few months ago the Steinway dealer requested the inventory so they could
turn in the numbers so I don't know how many of the old pianos were turned
in on that list.
Like with most schools too many pianos for one tech. to be able to tune and
maintain on a consistent basis.  I only have a measly $3,000.00 maintenance
budget.  I don't know if this is going to do any good, but I'm going to the
SoM director and show her the price of Steinway parts to see if that will
help increase my budget any.

-- 
Tony Graves RPT
Piano Technician
School of Music
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306
(765) 285-0053




On 12/8/07 10:00 PM, "Martin Snow" <martinsnowpianos at yahoo.com> wrote:

> hi folks
> I'd be interested to hear experiences from those
> techs. working at schools  that have become ''All
> Steinway''. Is it very restrictive on the purchase
> choice of instruments. What happened to existing
> inventory. Was administration and faculty  won over by
> becoming ''All Steinway''. How are the Boston pianos
> holding up etc etc..........
> 
> 
>       
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