Music Trade Review

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DECEMBER 30,
1922
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
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Wherein the Editor of This Player Section Indulges in His Monthly Out-
burst of More or Less Pertinent Observations on Things and Events
Which Have Gome Within His Purview During the Weeks Just Passed
Those who have at heart the best interests of
our industry will learn with more than ordi-
nary interest that Th. I>. Thompson has made
his first shipment of U'nette player-grands. The
announcements already made will have ac-
quainted readers with the fact that this instru-
ment is a small grand piano fitted with a foot-
pedal player action. There is no "dog-house"
under the keybed to carry the bellows and the
piano pedals. There is no drawer to slide out
containing the spool box and expression levers.
The case does not have to be lengthened. The
spool box and the music desk are one, and when
not in use the combined outfit falls back until it
rests just above the tuning pens of the center
section of the scale. P>y changing the disposi-
tion of the bars of the plate in the piano Mr.
Thompson has succeeded in finding room for
the spool box, the motor and other elements
without building upward the sides of the piano,
while, on the other hand, by altering the con-
struction of the keybed he has been able to
house the bellows against its under side, where
they are entirely out of sight. This all consti-
tutes a new departure in a number of essential
features and the progress of the instrument will
consequently be watched with more than ordi-
nary interest. Rut what in some ways is most
important of all is that Mr. Thompson has con-
sidered it good business to undertake to build
a fobt-pedal player-grand. In the present ten-
dencies of the trade little encouragement might
be found for such a policy, but the fact is that
the present electric-drive mania is largely arti-
ficial. Probable automatic expression players
and hand-played expression rolls are to domi-
nate the player field in the future, for which no
one need be sorry, but then that in no way
affects the foot-pedal question. There is no
good reason' for insisting that there should be
an electric motor in every player-piano. Mr.
Thompson is right, and the trade is due to find
out yet that for the greater number of pianos
it is much better to have power plant simple
rather than complicated, especially as to give
the music-lover something to do and some
measure of control is in itself to give him an
incentive to constant use which can never be
had through mere passive listening.
Painting the Sales Picture
The very interesting interview with W. F.
Grosvenor which appeared in The Review of
December 16 issue presents most significantly
the root of the problem of selling the reproduc-
ing piano. As we have said in the Player Sec-
tion over and over again, the salesman must
forget entirely what price he has finally to ask
for the instrument which he is about to present
to the prospect. If he begins by bringing for-
ward, or even allowing a place to, the question
of price he at once shifts the grounds of the
sale and almost compels the prospect to begin
a series of mental maneuvers in self-defense,
since to mention price is always to set in mo-
tion a reaction on the part of the prospect. As
Mr. Grosvenor so clearly points out, the sales-
man has to sell, not the instrument, but what
the instrument will do. As he does this he
builds up before the mind of the prospect a
picture of which the prospect occupies the cen-
ter. In this picture the pleasure and fun which
may be his are vividly suggested and visualized.
It is this mental picture-painting which lies at
the root of all successful salesmanship; this
and not price. Prices comes in only when the
prospect is thoroughly "sold" and has convinced
himself that the proposed purchase is wortli
sonic sacrifice. If any other course is taken
the prospect has to be convinced by the sales-
man, than which no task in selling is more
difficult or more thankless. Mr. Grosvenor's
views are very valuable and he deserves the
thanks of the trade. There is by no means any
overplus of knowledge on the problem of re-
producing piano salesmanship.
A Technical Service Coming
Speaking of reproducing piano salesmanship
leads to another point of parallel importance.
The maintenance problem is very serious.
Where a dealer is vorking in a comparatively
small way, and far from the point of manufac-
ture, he is likely to lay himself out for much
trouble if he is not provided with adequate
technical assistance. The reproducing piano is
indeed not more difficult to understand and care
for than an ordinary player-piano, but its pecu-
liarities must be understood by the technical
man who undertakes to do service work on it.
During the year 1S23 the Technical Department
of The Review will bring out a series of articles
on the reproducing piano, considered as a tech-
nical problem, and in the course of these will
undertake, by means of drawings and copious ex-
planations, to show the inner meaning of all the
accessory mechanisms which go to make up the
practical embodiments of automatic expression.
In undertaking this service the aim is to give
to those tuners who already know something
about the more elementary pneumatic art
enough in formation to enable them to do gen-
eral service work. The various service book-
lets published by the different makers contain,
of course, information and instructions invalu-
able in their way, but they need to be supple-
mented by a more general course of instruc-
tion in principles. It will be this supplement
which the forthcoming articles will provide.
Prosperity's Foundation
The rush of retail business in the great shop-
ping centers of the country has been really
enormous during the last three weeks. We have
seen rival music stores vying with each other
at the last moment to guarantee Christmas de-
livery, actually thinking it necessary to assure
last-minute buyers that, despite the general
grand rush, deliveries would be made on or
before Monday, the 25th. Does all this portend
a vast prosperity during 1923? Not so! But it
does show that during the year which is now at
its close there has been a very remarkable re-
covery. That this recovery will continue is
probable, but a great deal will depend upon
considerations of a political nature. It is use-
less for us to blink the fact that the buying
power of the agricultural population has been
very largely reduced and is to-day generally
lower than at any time since 1914. The causes
for this are to be found in the shutting off of
the foreign markets, which otherwise would
take up the surplus farm products at good
prices. It is the last 10 per cent of a distribu-
tion which counts, and that is what is the mat-
ter with the American farmer. He is losing the
last 10 per cent of his market. All the machi-
nations of all the politicians in the country who
may think it worth their while, and good poli-
tics, to play on the ignorance of the people
will never destroy this truth: namely, that the
buying power of the farmer is the basis of per-
manent prosperity. This means the restoration
of the foreign market. No messing with domes-
tic legislation can cure this economic disease;
it can only be cured by a just attitude toward
the international situation.
Our Best Wishes
And now, dear readers all, may you be very
happy and prosperous during the year now
opening. May everything go the way you want
it and may no shadows cross your path. For
ourselves, all we can say is that next year we
are going to try to make the P. S. better than
it has ever been. A H A P P Y N E W YEAR!
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