Bill, Comments interspersed. At 01:38 PM 03/03/02 -0500, you wrote: >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? All we have now are 9 in our Piano Major Practice Rooms. I try to tune them at least twice a semester. More if requested and when I can. >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? Have had problems with that in the past but got it corrected. They're not picked up/changed out now until the juries are over. The new ones are delivered at the same time. >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? Yes. They are no longer picked up until the semester's use of them is over! On the rare occasion that they do need to sell one, another one is delivered at the same time. Yes, that creates a need for an extra tuning or two but it's a fairly good trade-off to have new pianos available every year. The every 6th month thing that Dave Porritt mentioned, I don't think would even be considered here! Hopefully!!!!!!! >4. Have you, your school or the local dealer done anything to successfully >resolve these problems, that you can share with us? I and the head of the piano department simply insisted that they could not be changed out until the semester is over. Otherwise, we would find some other alternative. Thankfully, here in Houston we have some alternatives, even though a different plan would cost 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. Basically, you're correct with the above statements. But I've found out over the years that even if the piano major instruments are older, they still need to be tuned several times a semester. Granted, I don't always get that done but I try to. I think it was Jim Coleman who said that he tuned those instruments every month when he was doing university work. I believe it was Wim who also said that he's found that they need to be tuned every 3-4 weeks, if I remember correctly. Our program was originally started to give the piano majors decent instruments to practice on since our newest practice instruments date back to the 70's. I wasn't here at the time but overall, I think the plan has served us well. Yes, there have been a few problems over the years but so far, we've been able to get them corrected. Except occasionally when an instrument gets delivered with the action tie-down sticks still in place. When that happens, believe me the dealer hears about it from me and he gets a bill for the extra work to correct that, tune it and do whatever else is necessary! So far, the exposure here has been worth it to him, so I've always been able to get most problems addressed. But lease or not, those particular instruments are going to need to be tuned very frequently if one wants to keep them decently in tune. Right now, from our lease piano dealer, we've had a Kawai EX and a Shigeru 7' on loan to us, at his instigation. Primarily for the exposure, I'm sure. The EX was used during our International Piano Festival for Master Classes and also for a later Master Class with Horacio Gutierrez. Plus numerous piano studio classes and for most of the recitals over the several weeks it's been here. The Shigeru is in a piano professor's studio and everyone who's played on it, loves it. I've recently heard there's a chance that we may even be buying it! Hope these comments help a little. Avery University of Houston >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 >>
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