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The Jk
Established 1879
VOL 110-No. 3
T H E
P I O N E E R
March, 1951
2,852nd Issue
REVIEW
P U B L I C A T I O N
O F T H E M U S I C
I N D U S T R Y
Importance of the Relationship of the
Tuning Profession to the Piano Industry
M
ANY people who buy pianos
know nothing about pianos.
Many women particularly select
a piano primarily on the basis of ap-
pearance somewhat like they do when
they buy a car. Most of them know a
lot more about a car than they do about
a piano.
A piano is primarily a musical in-
strument and should be sold as such.
It is up to the piano manufacturers to
preserve a high grade of integrity and
refuse to make pianos, which though
attractive in case design, are too poorly
constructed to be real musical instru-
ments.
The public is accustomed to interpret
any change in a piano as an improve-
ment. Changes which occur solely
through an effort toward restyling are
not generally improvements in the
musical qualities of the instrument.
The small piano — the spinet — the
consolette — is here to stay. Tuners
should consider this fact. Those of us
who are engaged in selling pianos to
the public often hear a prospective
buyer say that their tuner advised them
against buying any small piano. They
claim they were told that the small
pianos are not well made, have very
little tone—will not hold pitch even for
a reasonable length of time, etc.
I believe that it is the tuner's respon-
sibility, when asked by his client about
the purchase of a new piano to advise
his client to purchase a product from
one of the piano manufacturers who
are keeping faith with the public and
constantly striving to make the small
piano as fine in tone quality and as
mechanically perfect a musical instru-
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, MARCH, 1951
by ROLLA A. BURKE
W. W. Kimball Co., Chicago, 111.
ROLLA A. BURKE
ment as is humanly possible.
It is true that some of the cheap
spinets have not measured up—but most
of the piano manufacturers today are
trying to give the public good piano
value commensurate with the cost of the
instrument. Members of the tuning pro-
fession should keep this in mind and
not condemn all spinet or consolette
type pianos—as many pianos of this
type are surprisingly good and will ren-
der very good service.
Dealers who sell pianos would do well
to sell piano buyers piano service when
they first close the piano sale with their
customer. Wo do this in our stores and
it pays dividends—both in profits and
satisfied customers.
No car owner would think of run-
ning his automobile indefinitely without
checking his tires, changing his oil.
spark plugs—greasing his car, etc., etc.
He pays for it plenty, and gladly, in
order to keep his car functioning prop-
erly. Automobile dealers and manufac-
turers have educated the public to rou-
tine service as a necessary investment
to ensure their car performing properly
and prolong its life of usefulness.
A piano, however, is often neglected
shamefully. I have had people brag
about the fact that their piano was a
splendid instrument and had required
no servicing in 10 years—not even a
tuning. One lady told me that the sales-
man* who had sold her the piano told
her it was a self tuner. When I amaz-
ingly asked her what she meant by that,
she said the salesman had explained
that there was a mechanism back of the
iron plate that functioned, something
like the works in a watch. It automat-
ically turned the tuning pins a bit from
time to time—adjusting them so that
the piano would always stay in tune.
We of the piano industry know its
foolish to let a piano go too long with-
out tuning and no piano was ever built
that did not have to be tuned occasion-
ally. Three or four times a year is about
right, but never less than once every 6
months. Piano owners should be edu-
cated to provide such service for their
piano and be expected to pay for it.
Piano tuners as a rule are not sales-
minded and sometimes pass up chances
to pick up good prospects from the
client whose old piano the tuner may
be servicing. A suggestion to the old
piano owner as to trading the old worn
out or outmoded piano in on a new
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