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JULY S,
THE
1924
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
11
TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT
Conducted By William Braid White
Ventilating Some of the Ideas Which
the Tuners Give Currency to To-day
Discussion Always Aids in Finding a Satisfactory Solution to Grievances—Manufacturers' Atti-
tude, Technicians, Tuners as Writers and Dealers and Service—Comment of the
Technical Editor on Questions Raised by E. U. Will
ERE is a letter which brings up a number
of controversial questions, all of which
are worth reproducing, however, and
also answering, because they relate to matters
at present very much in the minds of all field
technicians, even though they do not come to
the surface or find expression. When a man
says things which one knows to be in the
thought of almost every one else in the same
profession, it is always well, and more than
merely well, to give currency to them; for thus
they may be ventilated and their worth put to
a test which otherwise probably would be quite
unobtainable. Discussion always helps, espe-
cially when the matters discussed are viewed by
most of the participants in a wrong light.
I am reproducing a letter from E. U. Will,
of Portland, Ore., well-known to readers of this
department as a tuner and piano technician of
high attainments. He says:
"Dear Mr. White: Your technical columns
are always interesting and should be read by
all tuners for the new thoughts conveyed by
them and inspired in readers' minds. In time,
no doubt, your work will bring beneficial results,
but, unfortunately, few, if any, manufacturers
seem to better their ways or their product for
all your earnest work.
Says Manufacturers Are Different
"1. Your observations in the June 14 issue
on the labor situation in the piano factories
gives in a measure the manufacturers' point of
view and offers reasons for the inferior tone
value of the pianos made by them to-day. The
manufacturers' indifference to public wants in
tone value should be laid bare; or perhaps the
public should rather be educated in piano tone
production, so that they might demand better-
toned pianos. When the demand is strong
enough, some one will produce the goods
accordingly.
Fifty-two Out of Fifty-four
"2. A very interesting exhibit was published
in a trade paper last week of a very prominent
piano factory which had sold fifty-four pianos
to schools and colleges; yet in the entire num-
ber only two were so-called 'first-class' grands.
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Fifty-two out of fifty-four inferior-toned pianos,
therefore, were sold to schools and colleges.
Why? Because the purchasers did not know
what to call for and demand in the construction
of the pianos they selected. The manufacturers
and dealers left them in ignorance and so the
children who will play those pianos will have
to put up with the selections made. Here, is
work for some one, to bring about a change
which will result in better music from moderate-
priced pianos.
Technicians
"3. In reference to the organization of tech-
nicians and factory superintendents: Do you
think that technicians and tone experts should
give their knowledge gratis to manufacturers,
dealers and the public? Will the society pub-
lish its findings for public distribution? Who
will educate the public? Technical publications,
read only by technical persons, will not educate
the common public very fast.
Tuners as Writers
"4. If, on the other hand, this is left to
tuners, then these latter should get their knowl-
edge published in journals read by music teach-
ers and their pupils. Personal interviews with
the editors of music journals may bring results.
I have tried correspondence with the editor of
the Etude, but my article was not published,
rather to my surprise. Yet I am sure that many
teachers would have been interested. I know
how my own clientele of teachers has been in-
terested in matters of piano construction as
these affect the tone of a piano.
"5. The most prominent manufacturers, with
few exceptions, rather hold themselves aloof
from giving out important information that
every piano owner should possess. Nor do
dealers educate their customers, largely perhaps
because they themselves do not know much
about piano tone production. Many successful
dealers do not know when a piano is in fine
tune. Naturally, the public will buy pianos out
of tune and not tone-regulated. I venture to
say that not one dealer in twenty-five knows
the value of good tone-regulation, and so, of
course, very few owners have any knowledge in
the matter, or know that such service can be
had. Dealers do not require their tuners or
salesmen to tell customers about tone-regulating
old pianos, for if the customers had the in-
formation they would spend money on having
tone restored rather than on buying new pianos.
Dealers and Service
"6. This brings up another question: Can
a tuner conscientiously serve two masters, as
it were, the dealer who employs him and the
owners of pianos who spend their money to
have their instruments (supposedly) put in fine
musical order? Only the other day a client
called me up and said that three prominent deal-
ers had turned her down for piano service, say-
ing that her piano was too bad. It is an Emer-
son, thirty-five years old. Three and a half
hours of work put the piano in good tune at
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pletely satisfied the owner. Did the tuners em-
ployed by these dealers do right in turning
down that application for tuning service? Re-
spectfully, E. U. Will, Portland, Ore."
Comment
Answers to these questions, and comment
upon the statements made along with them, are
made at some length, not because I agree with
most of what Mr. Will advances, but because
the thoughts that prompted him to write so
fully and interestingly are so many signs of
opinions very widely held among the tech-
nicians in the field; thoughts not the less inac-
curate for resting upon a substratum of truth.
Discussion is therefore highly valuable.
1. I have no special brief for either the man-
ufacturers or the dealers, but I do know some-
thing of their problems and of the reasons which
lead them to some of the actions which have
provoked Mr. Will's dissent. And I think it
perfectly proper to say that the trade is by no
means indifferent to public wants. The funda-
mental difficulty lies back in the beginning of
the industry, which early was invaded by men
who saw that there was a demand for a piano
at a price which almost anyone could pay, and
who, in consequence, inaugurated the era of
cheap manufacturing which finally led to the
dreadful thump-box of fifteen years ago. That
piano is, of course, to-day dead, happily for us
all, and the general average of manufacturing is
now well above that level. Unfortunately, how-
ever, the mischief which was done so lightly
years ago is to-day most hardly to be undone.
The public has been wrongly educated and
thinks that a piano is a piano, and that noth-
ing else much matters. Price has been drilled
into the public mind through the mistaken tac-
tics of dealers who have been unable to figure
out any other way of selling so easy and so
simple; and by manufacturers who have been
compelled, by dealer pressure, to supply goods
built down to a price. It is easy to denounce
the state of affairs, which is certainly not ad-
mirable or creditable; but to remedy it is more
difficult, though remedied it must be.
The Pernicious Price Thought
2. If Mr. Will had ever tried to capture a
large order of pianos for a school, a college
or for any other public institution he would
know that it is usually a matter of competitive
bidding. Now competitive bidding is all very
well in its way, but when six or seven concerns
are working for a contract of this kind, which
will finally be awarded by men who neither
know nor care about tone, but who do care
very much about price, who is going to take
blame for supplying the goods which are de-
manded, rather than for trying in vain to supply
what is actually needed? A dealer big enough
to administer a rebuke in some of the shameful
cases of the price-screwing which .purchasing
agents of public institutions have not been
(Continued on page 12)
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