[pianotech] Upright price

[Dean May]

It's not just old pianos! I tuned a relatively new expensive Kawai console,
902-M, today that sounded like crap, no sustain, no clarity, wrapped strings
full of false beats. 

Dean

Dean W May (812) 235-5272 voice and text

PianoRebuilders.com (888) DEAN-MAY

Terre Haute IN 47802


-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Zeno Wood
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 9:07 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] Upright price

Most people don't know what a good piano sounds like.  More and more
people out there have never heard a good piano, live, in person.  Put
that together with the rise of Craigs List, and that aged piano sound
is becoming the new standard.  There's also the change over all in
hi-fi sound: people don't go for big speakers anymore, they listen to
music on their tinny little computer speakers, or their phone device.
The MP3 format also reflects this mass acceptance of lower quality
sound.

What do we do about it?  Well, we should advocate for listening to and
making live music.  For many clients, we are one of their few links to
the wider world of live music.  The sound of live music, be it piano
or voice or orchestra or rock/rap group, is incomparably better than
canned sound.  When people hear live music, hopefully that will raise
the bar on their understanding of what music should sound like.  I try
to tell people about concerts that I think they'd like.  You can also
give away cds - buy a few cds of chopin or something, on Naxos or some
such inexpensive record label - listen to it on your car stereo a few
times, then give it to the next client that you think might like it.


------------------------
(Noah)
I do believe that bias, as Dean pointed out, is very important here. Not
everyone is looking for a piano that sounds great. Could it be that as more
aging pianos become available, and as the demand for beautiful pianos
decreases, the sound of an aged piano (dull, unpleasant to many ears, old,
rackety, short sustain, weak, etc.) becomes a more acceptable piano sound
to the general population? If so, then in order to offset this trend, if it
is negative, then we would take David Love's stance and focus on bringing
up the value of pianos, both monetarily and socially/musically. If. on the
other hand, it is not a negative trend but just a factual one, then there
is no problem with promoting $100 sales for the right person.
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