Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
13
Tom
T
H E acquirement by a large Western player manufacturing-
house of the factory buildings and manufacturing equip-'
ment of a still larger piano making business which recently went
into bankruptcy, emphasizes a condition of the player business
that is to be reckoned with. The house in question has hitherto
confined itself to the production of a player mechanism for the
wholesale trade. The new move simply means that in future the
house will add to its activities the manufacture of pianos and will
offer a complete line of player-pianos distinguished by equipment
with the player mechanism which it has already made famous. In
itself the incident might pass without further comment, but for
the fact that it connotes the existence of the condition above men-
tioned. The fact is, of course, that a good many dealers have
begun to ask for lines of player-pianos equipped with their own
exclusive mechanisms.
W
H E T H E R the condition of which we speak is to be de-
plored or to be admired is an open question. ()ur own
thought is that the specialist action maker is almost sure, other
things being equal, to produce a mechanism of complete reliability
and of a type which in time becomes virtually standardized by the
elimination of the merely freakish or of the unnecessary. Such
a process of refinement is inevitable when a house is obliged to
manufacture one machine to satisfy many individual tastes as to
methods, quality, efficiency and installation. The main point, how-
ever, is that the more actions there are made wholesale for the
general trade, the more rapid will be the approach toward that
final goal of complete standardization as to
type which is now seen in the piano action.
The tendency of all machine manufacture
is toward an approximate similarity of de-
sign, for the simple reason that the designers
always have a perfect machine in mind,
whether it be realized at this moment or not.
and all experiment and study naturally lead
toward that perfection, so that all machines
made bv all makers must finally approach
one tvpe as they approach perfection. For
perfection is, of course, single. There is
only one best way of doing anything. The
player to-day suffers from a multitude of
quite unnecessary talking-points and quite
superfluous features which in course of
time will be entirely eliminated. The
player made for general trade is the player
which soonest will realize an approach to
standardized practice.
*
satisfactorily and responds to the control exercised or attempted to
be exercised over it, and if in addition it stands up well under use
and gives a minimum of structural trouble, then it is a good player,
and not all the talking points in the world, possessed or lacking,
can make it anything better or worse. Hence the standardized
player is the logical player, and the player to which in time we must
all come.
L
ITTLE by little the proportion which the straight piano and
the player bear to each other becomes more and more nearly
even. "Fifty-Fifty" will soon be the cry, without a doubt. On
the face of the proposition one might well ask, why is not the
player already installed in three out of every four pianos sold ?
Certainly to an intelligent person outside the trade the inherent
superiority of the player-piano seems quite weighty enough to give
it at least that much preponderance. The many factors which
have entered into the proposition and have tended to act as drags
on its progress, cannot, of course, be gone into here. Rut we
know that much of the difficulty is owing to the short-sightedness
of retailers who have allowed the player to get down to a terms-
of-sale basis no higher than that which ten years ago was the
lowest allowable for ordinary pianos. In the circumstances, the
desire to sell player-pianos has not been excessive, for it simply
has meant still longer time, and still longer tying up of capital.
There are other reasons, but that is perhaps, in truth, the principal.
Nevertheless the player wins its way, not because of the retailer's
efforts, but largely in spite of them.
,
We Guarantee
For Life
Sigler
Player
Actions
are made in
either the Double or Single Valve Type
and are sold with a lifetime guarantee.
P
LAYER-PIANOS are too often sold
on a fundamentally wrong principle.
The idea of alleging that any single feature
or any presently devised combination of
features, apart from the grade of material
and workmanship, can give any player ex-
cessive superiority over any other, is the
thinnest of pretenses. The truth is that the
player, considered as a piece of machinery,
and the player considered as a desirable
addition to the musical equipment of the
world, are two different things. If dealers
were wise the one thing they would refuse
to talk about would be the technical pe-
culiarities of the player; peculiarities which
the public cannot in the least understand,
does not really want to hear about, and
which in fact it has no business to think
about. The only possible test of satisfac-
tion is found in the behavior of the player-
piano under the stress of use. If it plays
Write us about making an exclusive
action for your piano.
Remember, ours is a quality product and
we stand back of it. We make Player
\ Actions to play your piano. Each
one an Individual Player.
.
Write us of your needs
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Sigler Piano Player Co.
Harrisburg, Pa.