decals

[Susan Kline]

Hi, Jim
You wrote:
>If this fax was official, I'm wondering if Steinway would prefer that
>rebuilders place their own names on the fallboard instead of Steinway.
>This would turn out to be advertising for the rebuilder instead of for
>Steinway. Since there are many more old Steinways (and most all are 
>rebuildable) than there are relatively new Steinways, they would lose
>a lot of free advertising. This does not look like a wise decision.

You do bring up some interesting points. If private rebuilders 
are not allowed to use the Steinway name, it leaves a large vacuum 
behind, which something must fill. <joke:> Should we set up a standard 
name for these pianos? Maybe we could call them "Nonsteins". Only 
previously S&S pianos which had NOT been to the official factory 
shop, and/or had had non-New York Steinway parts would be allowed 
to use this name. (We could register it as a trademark, to protect 
its use.) Since many Nonsteins would be absolutely FANTASTIC pianos, 
the name could come to be a real selling point. Nothing like older 
Steinways beautifully rebuilt for quality! Maybe eventually 
people would take a good Steinway, and replace one hammer shank 
with a Japanese part, just so they could use the name. 

Okay, okay, I'm being silly ... the point I'm trying to make 
is that just because a restriction is legal, it does not 
follow that it is advisable. 

IMHO, the only way for the Steinway rebuilding facility to attract a 
larger market share is to have the quality and price of their work 
overwhelmingly superior to other rebuilders. Until it is, trying 
to manipulate the market is likely to backfire on them.

This assumes, of course, that the FAX was accurately quoted. We 
haven't heard from the company yet. 

Susan Kline