improvements

[Carl Meyer]

John, thank you for the post.  I apologize for not clarifying what I was really talking about.  

Before I comment below, I would like to ask about  what a piano dealer/salesman just told me.  He said that Steinway is only working every other week and has made an arrangement for their employees to draw unemployment for the off week.  I had my BS filter turned on at the time, but I'm wondering if that was sour grapes, a rumor,  an out and out lie or what?
Anyone know?  If it is true then it's not too surprising to me that they would have enough clout and are large enough to intimidate the government to bail them out.

Cynical minds want to know!!


And now this:

--- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Musselwhite" <john@musselwhite.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 04, 2002 8:48 AM
Subject: Re: improvements


> 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.

Actually, I had rebuilt pianos in mind when I wrote that.  Note that I used the phrase "sometimes equal quality" when discussing other brands.  I'll give you an example:  A budding young pianist that I maintained a grandmothers gift piano for then became the proud owner of an SS "B" bought at great expense by her parents.  This was a new piano, I don't know who sold it or anything else but others that saw the piano labeled it mediocre at best. Now at about the same time I had a "rebuilt, what ever that means" Hardman 6'10" grand that I'd say was certainly in the same ball park (1908) as the SS B.  
Now an SS B of the same era rebuilt to the same level or even less would have brought about 35-40 thousand dollars.  I finally at great  effort and a little bit of luck got $15500 for the Hardman.   This is what I mean about gettin 2-3 times for one brand over another.  I realize that this one example is only anecdotal evidence, but I like anecdotal evidence.  When I tell my Doctor what I've done to improve my health he always says "It's just anecdotal evidence, Carl, It's just the placebo effect."  I just can never resist the come back.  "How come the treatment your giving me doesn't even have a placebo effect????  Is it any wonder that Doctors don't like me?  

I don't have any problem with anything else you said.  I don't have too much experience with all these many different new and improved mouse traps tht are on the market these days.  

I prefer to concentrate my limited time and interest on pianos older that I am.

The best,

Carl Meyer  Assoc. PTG
Santa Clara, California
cmpiano@attbi.com 
 
> 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
> 
> 
>