Steinway flat board

[BobDavis88@aol.com]

> the manufacturer can now, for the first time,
>  accurately match the warranty to the design and quality of the
>  piano. In others words, a piano that carries a warranty of five
>  years, is designed to last five years and one day.

I can't say I agree w/Les on either the facts or the tone. I'm not denying
that the "Golden Age" pianos did seem to be built for eternity, that the
materials were fine, and that the workmanship is humbling to follow. However,
any modern manufacturer which made a piano to last five years, then didn't
think that piano would be out there shouting the maker's name in a raspy
voice for the next fifty, doesn't deserve to stay in business, and some
haven't. And, I've played some mighty fine modern pianos.

The piano business is, however, a BUSINESS. It is MARKET DRIVEN. The
piano-buying public assigns a value to various virtues, and a company has to
decide exactly how much the PUBLIC wants it to spend pursuing "perfection."
Will people pay $40,000 for a Steinway? Many will. Maybe they could make a
better instrument for $60,000. Would pianists pay $60,000? $120,000? Would
ENOUGH of them pay $120,000? Ask Boesendorfer in ten or twenty years. That
decision has to be made for each of the twelve-thousand-somethingty-something
parts, as well as for how they go together. Spend too much and one goes out
of business; cut too many corners and the public and the technical community
will balk. Here the company has a chance to respond, as Steinway has, to
having gone to far (can you say "CBS?').

Does every complaining technician own a nine-foot Golden Age Steindorfer? Why
not? Because there are more factors than quality to owning a piano.

For four completely different business plans, look at Boesendorfer, Steinway,
Yamaha, and the now-defunct Aeolian. Admittedly, some are more satisfying to
work on than others, but people were buying all of them. All four companies
had to make (or not make) the tradeoffs of labor quality, materials quality,
and price. All had to decide on a market share that matched their business
plan, and try to meet that market share with the above decisions. Don't think
for a minute that conditions are static for any of them, either: all must
re-evaluate their plans constantly, as conditions change, or they will pay
the price that Aeolian did.

Because most technicians are fortunate to have enough work that daily
competition is less of a factor than it is for a manufacturer, we can enjoy
our small niche and focus more on the quality of our work. If I ever get to
feeling smug, I think how it would be to have a stream of other, anonymous
technicians (or Golden Age piano makers) passing through my shop, criticizing
my work daily the way we sometimes talk about piano companies. Is EVERY facet
of EVERY one of our repair jobs as good as a century-old Hamlin &
Chickendorfer? Is it as good as the best of the modern Steinways? Could Henry
Steinway visit any one of your jobs from any part of your career without
making ANY suggestions? If not, it might behoove us to recognize our mutually
beneficial relationship with manufacturers. They are under even greater
business pressures than we are. I have seen manufacturers have to go on the
defensive to protect themselves against piling on, some of it justified but
not all of it, and the two-way flow stops, to the detriment of both us and
the piano maker. We've seen on the pianotech list how valuable constructive
disagreement is for both parties, and how wasteful and destructive flames and
moral outrage usually are. So it looks like there's always a place for
humility....

Bob Davis