[CAUT] University piano replacement program

[Porritt, David]

Paul:

 

We all have to do whatever our leaders and our budget will allow but
frankly I'd like it if we only bought new grand pianos if we needed
additional instruments.  I've long been convinced that full
remanufacturing will get you more instrument for less money than trading
them.  We had one D redesigned 3 years ago and is in my view far better
than the new ones.  We have another out right now that will be returned
just before school starts that...........I'll let you know how it does
but my prediction is it will blow away any new ones.  AND we will have
spent a small fraction of the cost of a new one.

 

Uprights on the other hand, I'm trying to get a plan in place that will
replace 2 uprights a year in perpetuity.  Uprights are not as cost
effective to remanufacture (at least in my experience) so replacement is
the logical course of action.

 

dave

 

 

David M. Porritt, RPT

dporritt at smu.edu <mailto:dporritt at smu.edu> 

 

From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Paul T Williams
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 5:04 PM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: Re: [CAUT] University piano replacement program

 


Hi Tony, 

Realistic plan replacement at UNL is a hard one to "sell".  We have many
Steinway and Mason &  Hamilin grands in our practice rooms.  Most of
them are 40-80 years old, but with new actions, key bushings, etc.
Replacing them vs. fixing them is the reality of the university setting.
We have to actually see reality in that we can not just replace them
with new pianos even though we would love to do so. Performance pianos,
of course, get the most attention.  I am currently replacing an entire
action on a 1956 Baldwin D which, still, will need a new soundboard,
pinblock, and whole nine yards, but we have to spread out the budget the
best we can and this piano is one of our 'concert' instruments.  We also
have three Steinway D's much newer and in excellent condition.  Every
school has it's own budget and by what Ive seen, we have a pretty good
one, but still not what would be considered "great".  The really great
schools like Oberlin, Julliard, etc probably have a great replacement
program as they are recognized as world famous.  For the main-stream
university programs, I would say that they only replace pianos when they
just can't be worth the investment.  I  regularly tune repair etc these
instruments as they are played 12-14 hours a day.  Now with summer here,
I have a chance to get in an try to fix the ongoing problems with
certain pianos, but still have no time to rebuild them. 

Does this help?? 

Paul 





"tony" <amastadonna at neo.rr.com> 
Sent by: caut-bounces at ptg.org 

07/01/2008 03:55 PM 

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Subject

[CAUT] University piano replacement program

 

		

 

I have a question........ 
  
In creating a "realistic" Piano replacement plan for approval by an
university administration, 
  
What would you recommend the basic specifications of the practice room
pianos be? 
  
How would you compare their importance to the school verses the studio
and performance instruments. 
  
If you would need to "cut" would this be the natural place? 
  
And how many times a year do you get to these pianos for tuning? 
  
  
  
 
 Tony Mastadonna 
Institutional Sales Consultant 
  
 
    Cell-330-603-8843 
     

		

 

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