[CAUT] University piano replacement program

[tony]

Thanks Paul and David,

I was assuming the importance of the concert, & studio instruments. That's a
given! 

What I was getting at, is, if (and I know this might be a large if) but if
we were to submit a plan for total "long term" replacement (with repair &
rebuilding concert instruments)  How important is it to have "High quality"
Classroom & Practice rooms pianos.
To cut costs in a replacement program do you feel "middle priced" Grands or
verticals would hold up? (Yamaha, Kawai, Pramberger, Knabe, etc.) How
important is the price range of these pianos?

My experience is the more expensive the piano, the more delicate it is (more
sensitive to humidity changes and less tuning stability. In a new piano,
assuming the pinblock is tight, doesn't the board move more in a "high
quality" piano with a thinner board designed for better tone? Is that
necessary for the Practice room pianos? How frequently can you get to these
pianos to tune them in a year? Doesn't the care & maintenance of the 
Quality" Concert and Studio pianos constantly change you tuning plans and
become priority?

Your thoughts please..........and anyone else!

   Tony Mastadonna 
Institutional Sales Consultant
 

    Cell-330-603-8843
    
-------Original Message-------
 
From: Porritt, David
Date: 7/1/2008 6:58:14 PM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: Re: [CAUT] University piano replacement program
 
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
 
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 
Please respond to
College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>
To<caut at ptg.org> 
cc
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 
    



 
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20080702/c8efd4ee/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 258 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20080702/c8efd4ee/attachment-0004.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 29319 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20080702/c8efd4ee/attachment-0002.jpe 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 1514 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20080702/c8efd4ee/attachment-0005.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 258 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20080702/c8efd4ee/attachment-0006.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 29319 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20080702/c8efd4ee/attachment-0003.jpe 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 1514 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20080702/c8efd4ee/attachment-0007.gif