improvements

[John Musselwhite]

At 02:23 PM 03/05/02 -0700, Carl wrote:

>Since "consumers" will pay three times as much for an S&S than a sometimes 
>equal quality "other brand" I'd say they "the consumers" are already 
>terminally confused and Steinway wants to keep it that way.

I hope you're not trying to compare something like a Yamaha C series with a 
Steinway. They are *not* equal by any stretch of the imagination.

Have you checked out the prices of the high-end Yamaha and Shigeru Kawai 
pianos lately? You'll find that what might be considered the equivalent 
Asian pianos are priced right up there with and beyond the Steinway.

>
>What better evidence of their desire to capitalize on their name than 
>Boston and Essex?   Or could that be a sign that they may be faltering?

If you compare Steinway (a publicly-owned and traded company that has to 
show increasing profits to the shareholders) to other fine American musical 
instrument makers it's no different than Gibson making their named guitars 
in the US Gibson factories and having their other higher-volume brands 
(like Epiphones) made overseas under their auspices.  C.F. Martin does the 
same in making their name brand guitars in Nazareth PA but authorizing 
Sigmas to be made overseas using their modified designs. They do this 
partly so people who couldn't afford their quality guitars can play 
something sort-of close and partly so the company can show a bigger profit 
since expanding production is difficult with a hand-made product.

At least they didn't make the mistake Fender made when guitars carrying the 
familiar Fender name, logo and designs might be made in the USA, Mexico or 
Japan. How would you like it if you'd have to look under an S or M to see 
if it had a "Made in Japan" label stuck onto a luan beam?

                 John

John Musselwhite, RPT    -     Calgary, Alberta Canada
http://www.musselwhite.com  http://canadianpianopage.com/calgary
Pianotech IRC chats Tuesday and Thursday nights and Sunday Mornings
http://www.bigfoot.com/~kmvander/ircpiano.html