Lease piano issues (was Symphony piano sale)

[Bdshull@AOL.COM]

List,

As one who has, with great excitement and expectation, performed hundreds of 
tunings on lease pianos at universities, I want to ask those of you who have 
been involved with the lease programs:

>From your experience:

1.  Do these new, pitch-unstable pianos get enough tunings to be useful for 
music education?

2.  Does the lease sale happen at a time that is disruptive to the school 
schedule, rehearsals, jury preparation, etc., or does it happen before or 
after an academic period?

3.  Does the school have control of the coming and going of these pianos so 
that they do not get moved or sold out from under you at any time, further 
complicating the attempt to have tuning-stable pianos for the year?

4.  Have you, your school or the local dealer done anything to successfully 
resolve these problems, that you can share with us?

My experience is that the lease pianos are not really musically useful most 
of the time.  Typical new piano tuning issues involve rapid string stretch as 
well as dramatic, weather-influenced soundboard rise and fall.  Add to this 
typical heavy practicing, and these pianos are year-round tuning disasters.  
As co-chair of the CAUT committee for contract issues, I am trying to address 
these issues and incorporate solutions into our new Guidelines document which 
will be up for approval at the Institute in Chicago.  I think we on the 
Pianotech list who do contract work for universities have a huge challenge.  
The lease program isn't going away, so I am interested in what you have done 
to successfully address the problems we encounter with lease pianos.

La Sierra University
Co-Chair, College and University Technicians Committee, PTG

In a message dated 3/2/02 11:03:07 AM Pacific Standard Time, JStan40@AOL.COM 
writes:

<< Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2002 08:19:23 -0500
 > From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
 > Subject: Re: Symphony Piano Sale
 > 
 > I guess most of where I was looking for a bit of input was what is the 
 > "association" between the 'local' orchestra and this famous company? Why 
do 
 > they choose to put out a letter with their name on it like this? Are they 
 > simply part of the marketing victims? Do they get a lot of money out of 
 > this deal? Did they sign some contract with the famous company when they 
 > bought their D and got a few bucks off it? Or do they just love those 
 > pianos and feel they are the best in the world? What IS the deal here? 
What 
 > IS this "association"?
 > 
 > Terry Farrell
 > 
 Terry,
 
 I'm not absolutely certain how the particular "Symphony Sale" to which you 
 refer was organized, but I'll bet that it is similar to the situation which 
 many schools (including mine) have found advantageous.  The company (in our 
 case a local store, in your case, Steenburgenhoffenschitzer) offers the 
 institution the free use of several pianos (in our case a mixture of grands 
 and uprights) for one year, in exchange for which the store (or above named 
 manufacturer) is allowed to hold one of these high-powered sales events.  
For 
 us, that means that we do not have to include 8 pianos on our capital 
budget. 
  For the store it means that they get to use our building in which to hold 
 their event.
 
 We are more than aware of the "gun-'em-down" nature of the sales tactics 
 often used, and we will inform people who ask us about the nature of the 
 relationship.  Yes, they bring in absolute junk in addition to a number of 
 pretty good new instruments.  Yes, the junk sometimes sells, too--but I've 
 seen some of the same junk for several years in a row, so all is not lost!
 
 Do I like this arrangement?  No.  I feel as you do, that it is misleading at 
 best.  But are pianos in the sale used at the institution?  Yes, the pianos 
 that we were given the use of for a year are sold......and actually at less 
 than retail price.  This is at least a "tip of the hat" towards honest 
 representation.  But the fact is, that for the institution providing the 
 venue for the sale, the benefits are to be found in the use of instruments 
 that would otherwise have to be purchased.
 
 Regards,
 
 Stan Ryberg
 Barrington IL
 mailto:jstan40@aol.com >>