Presto

August, 1931
PRESTO-TIMES
THINGS SAID O R SUGGESTED
for argument, since their good intentions offset the
obvious errors." He made a few pessimistic remarks
about the Kroeger factory not running at present and
the factory full of goods, and then remarked: "Con-
necticut is one grand state. If I could sell the idea
to Bill Betz down at Hammond, and get him here
pianos—he had the same line of pianos but didn't so that I could enjoy a good talkfest once in so often,
know the people—so another, though high power, well, it would be the Almost Perfect State that old
Don Marquis used to write about. And speaking of
might follow up and fail.
While I am selling side-lines and hankering for a Bill, did you know that he has a new grand with
"Chinaman's chance" to again sell pianos, I often some new ideas? And, by the way, how reluctant
wonder what is the psychology of the whole piano the trade is to accept a new idea. I don't find pianos
trade from the viewpoint of manufacturers. Have any better than old Henry Kroeger made them back
they laid off their salaried salesmen, curtailed produc- about 1888, but gosh! to hear them tell it you'd think
tion, withdrawn liberal terms to representatives? All that each new style represented an advance in some
this seems obvious, but what are they going to do new method of co-ordinating string plan, sounding
to revive the sale of pianos? People have to be sold board and hammers, so as to get better tone. After
on any proposition—even the Gospel has to be all is said and done, T O N E is the only reason for
preached—or are they going to follow the idea of the building a piano, and it is about as much a. mystery
Singer Manufacturing Co., . the biggest installment and an unknown quantity to the average piano man
manufacturing concern in the world, by establishing as would be an exposition of the theory of the nebu-
lar hypothesis."
their branches with salaried managers?
OPEN FORUM
THE LOGICAL WAY OF
SELLING PIANOS
Minot, N. D., July 10, 1931.
The Presto-Times.
Gentlemen:
You have complimented me by publishing two of
my letters and I do not feel like imposing upon you
and your readers by a third, unless you find a kernel
worth cracking the nut for, so I will leave it with you.
A young man who had severed his connection
with one of the biggest piano manufacturing and
distributing concerns came to Minot and vicinity and
I was advised that he sold 19 pianos in less than
three weeks, where neither he nor the piano was
known.
His father-in-law, a prominent lawyer with an
analytical turn of mind and understanding more than
Blackstone, asked me how he did it, and it is my
line of logic—or illogic—that may be worth relating.
There are always a number interested in buying
pianos, and, although right at this time at a very low
ebb, there are some, and he dropped in at just the
logical moment and prepared the form of "ad" used
in the first prospect-getting known—"having some
pianos mis-shipped," or "on hand to sell at a very
special price sooner than re-ship," etc., and got in-
quiries like one elevator man, one highway main-
tainer, and the wife of a rural mail carrier in one
town where he sold, within a few hours, with good
down payments, a line of customers anyone would
be glad to get.
Up to a year or so ago this locality was combed
by two resident dealers with high-power cars, one
manufacturing concern with two salesmen and driv-
ing hard, one branch with three or four salesmen
with cars, two retail dealers in eastern North Dakota,
and one factory represented by men traveling with
train, and myself with my "T" Ford, driving night
and day—some thirteen, and all out with one object—
to sell pianos and educating families of prospective
buyers to want pianos.
The branch closed, the manufacturer withdrew, the
dealers quit coming, as did the one selling direct,
and my company discontinued me, saying they "were
marking time—not enough money to pay the freight
out here," etc., one dealer in California, the other
paying much attention to tuning, so that the desire
to own pianos created by twelve high-power sales-
men and myself had its effect on people ready to buy.
1 told the lawyer that I had spent my time trying
to secure other connections, to find one manufacturer
willing to take a chance of benefitting by the per-
sonal advertising, but none saw things as I did, pos-
sibly thinking my letters over-optimistic, visionary,
or possibly hysterical, or wanting to attach myself
to a pie-card in my old age; and I mentioned another
company for whom I had sold, nearly 500 pianos,
but they refused to accept the slump following the
war, so discontinued a dozen traveling representatives,
and, while my best year was '89, during the twelve
years following I doubt if they sold twelve pianos in
the territory; another writes that they are not in a
position to consider my proposition of representing
them, and I doubt if they have sold one of their
pianos, whole others have sold a thousand in this
locality; their travelers "representing the Dakotas"
live in Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis or Omaha,
"withdrawing liberal terms to dealers and losing."
It is possible that not another salesman in a thou-
sand could have put over the deal this man did, as
illustrated by a personal experience of my own:
starting from Fargo with $7.10 in available cash to
go until I had enough to get back; spending $1.50
at my first stop to follow a prospect who did not
buy; selling two organs in the next town, spending
Sunday there to read "David Harum"; the next town,
one for cash and one on time, and was out nine
months without revenue outside of down payments,
and was followed by a factory man on salary with
plenty of expense money and three pianos; he spent
his expense money and re-shipped two of the three
Like the millions of acres of arid land in the
mountainous valleys made fertile only when water is
let loose from reservoirs, so the fountain head of
the piano trade is the manufacturers, and until they
open the gates there will be a depression in the piano
trade. Men who can and have sold pianos, made
homes happy, and point with pride to those who
have developed their musical talent upon pianos they
sold, will resort to something else, but, unlike royalty,
a thing of the past, piano salesmen will continue to
be necessary to the continuing of piano manufacture.
Thank you for publishing a list of those manufac-
turers who have become a memory, others combin-
ing or in liquidation, and would that I could prod
some progressive manufacturer to see things as I
do and who is not afraid to invest a little money as
I would my experience and hard work.
Yours very truly.
NEW TYPE OF PIANO ACTION GETS
RECOGNITION
The following communication is explanatory of
tests made last month on piano actions, something
that appears to be the first time that tests of this
nature have been undertaken by the Bureau of
Standards at Washington.
.-•This new type of piano action seems to have devel-
oped remarkable capabilities, especially in repetition
under minimum release of the key.
The system and the results appear to be almost
revolutionary in piano action achievement and it is
said that many musicians are free to express the
thought that it is a step forward in action design.
The Bureau of Standards, Department of Com-
merce, of Washington, D. C , made some very inter-
D. ERNEST HALL.
esting tests on piano actions at their laboratories on
July 8 and 9, 1931.
Three types of grand actions were tested by the
department, under the supervision of Dr. Heyl. One
was the accepted type of standard design; the second
was the Swiss type of action invented by Arthur Flint
in Boston some 25 years ago; and a cam type of re-
Presto-Times has in a pigeonhole quite a sheaf of
peating action, patents for which were recently taken
editorials from the daily and weekly papers of the out by Mr. Gordon Campbell and Mr. Joseph Klepac.
nation about the piano situation. Some of these may
Below is a table of the findings of the department:
be traceable to the disseminated propaganda and ex-
Maximum Repetition Per Minute Without
tension of teachings by C. M. Tremaine's department
Dropping Beats
for the promotion of music, others may have been
Beats
inspired by local piano men in their contacts with
per minute
their community's editors, and many are suggested
by the music and music trade press. That they are Erard principle or standard design
787
printed at all is an indication of revived interest in Swiss action
716
the piano and piano playing as a subject for school Cam type
1,602
curricula. It is a guess as to whether the local piano
An attempt was made to standardize the blows per
man stirred up the torpid editor with a stick, or
minute at the speed of which a musician would en-
whether the town and the newspaper really had an deavor to repeat a single note. This was estimated
editor with enough vitality to see that the music at 425 blows per minute. It is exceedingly difficult
business had been shamefully slighted.
to establish this exact figure for direct comparisons,
and due to the highly sensitized timing mechanism of
Following is an editorial from the Stamford (Conn.)
the oscillograph, it was not possible to get an identical
Advocate:
number of blows. However, the comparison was
"PIANOS COME BACK
close enough for ascertaining the facts and measur-
"Pessimism on one subject has recently been proved ing the minimum escapement from the bottom of the
groundless. When player pianos were followed by touch necessary to attain this positive repetition of
phonographs and radios, many people gave up the the blows.
piano as a vanishing instrument. Before long it would
The results were as follows:
be as extinct as the dinosaur, they said. Why spend
Minimum
time and money learning to play the piano when one
Type of Action
clearance
could have canned music so easily?
169 inch
Piano factories here and there had to go out of Erard principle, 430 blows per minute
184 inch
business. It was a gloomy decade for piano teachers, Swiss action, 447 blows per minute
123 inch
musicians and factory workers. Then came a change. Cam action, 434 blows per minute
"There may be many factors in this revival. One is
A third test was the speed of travel of the hammer
surely the new 7 methods of group instruction, making under given blows on the key. The oscillograph meas-
piano study more interesting. Another, quite likely, ured the length of time required for the hammer to
is the familiarity with piano music brought about by travel the last three millimeters to the string and
those supposedly arch-enemies, the player piano, the rebound. A w r eight of 170 grams, dead weight, was
phonograph and the radio. As people learn to enjoy placed on the end of the key. The Erard type of
hearing piano music, they learn also that it is even
action indicated that there was an elapsed time of
more fun to play well themselves than merely to .008 second, and with the cam action an elapsed time
listen to others.
of .006—indicating that there was one-third more of
Commenting on this editorial, Edwin Jarrett, piano the good power transmitted to the string with the
man residing in Sound Beach, Conn., only two miles cam action than with the standard type.
from Stamford, saj's: "In the main, I find no reason
KOHLER-BRAMBACH PIANO CO., INC.
CONNECTICUT PHILOSOPHY
ABOUT PIANOS COMING BACK
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