[pianotech] What if Steinway Died... was Capo Bars

[Richard Brekne]

Hi folks.

I sat on this one for a couple days, not knowing whether to respond or 
not, knowing that my usual response always gets met with... well with 
what it usually gets met with... so I'll just ask you all a question I'd 
like your thoughts on... read the quote  from Ron O first.

    "Why don't I build them for all of the pianos we do? It took me a
    week to build the test set on the lathe with my milling attachment.
    I understand the Steinway rep here (who is also a technician)
    criticised the parts because they weren't factory standard - amazing
    stuff. This is how pianos have been stuck-in-a-rut for a 100 years.
    The factory that dominates the others doesn't give a damn about the
    craft, just the politics. So nothing changes."

    Ron O.


The question I'd like to ask you is ... ok... so what if Steinway went 
broke tomorrow and had to close its doors once and for all ? Do you, any 
of you think that the situation Ron and others so often express so much 
frustration about would really change ? And if so for how long ?

It seems to me that, whilst I understand the frustration expressed time 
and time over again, it seems to me that the wrong animal is being 
blamed. I would think that if it wasn't Steinway which dominants so much 
of what is accepted piano-wise, that some other factory would. That this 
is part of human nature... like it or not... for better or for worse.  A 
collapse of such a dominant force might result in some period of lots of 
dynamics in the industry... also for better and for worse... but that 
period would soon give way to the establishment of some new dominant 
force who relies on all the same kinds of mechanisms for survival as 
Steinway does today... with all the inherent frustrations of the kind 
expressed above that has been expressed so often. Seems to me we are 
stuck with that as long as we remain the animal we are today. Or what ?

Cheers
RicB