I'm number 1 to somebody

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I travel a lot, so I should be a prime customer for a number of travel related companies. If I had a bigger travel budget things might be different, especially when it comes to hotels and maybe air lines. However in this business one has to keep travel costs down. For that reason I am rather brand ambivalent except for a couple of cases.

Hertz
I really won’t price shop for a car rental because Hertz is so very good at getting me into the car and out of the lot. Hertz is usually more expensive but the discount I get from my status at one particular airline helps mitigate the difference. I’m also a Gold member which gives me no price advantage but is the secret to the easy in, easy out benefit. I go right to be bus, get dropped right at the screen which tells me where my car is. Show my license on the way out and I’m gone. I have a membership at another leading car rental company but even then I have to wait while the type endlessly on the computer…what are they typing anyway, they already have my info.

Hertz trains their people well. They aren’t warm and fuzzy in a fake way, just crisply efficient and cordial. I’ve had a couple of hiccups here and there. Their staff at DCA really have not gotten the memo on how to treat customers. Going to the Gold desk in that airport garage means getting the impression that you are really bothering them and taking them away from whatever they are doing at the computer terminal. Once is a fluke, twice is a pattern.

All rental cars are older and crummier now but they spiff me once in a while with something nice. I’ve got an Impala with a sun roof for this week of distance driving, but the AUX input jack doesn’t work. Oh well.

Hotwire
Ok, this is not the brand loyalty the hotels want me to have, but I book all hotels through Hotwire. Once you figure out the ratings (never ever go with 2 stars) you can get from adequate to really nice hotel rooms for real bargains. Not always the same bargain each time but I can really count on them to set me up right. I wish they did international hotel bookings.
Continue with brand loyalty

More traveling, this time to the midwest, and more driving. First a visit to a new customer in St. Louis, then a long drive to Elizabethtown KY to visit the warehouse at Keyboard Carriage. This is about a 5 hour drive but it is through some very beautiful scenery. You have to love the look of the midwest, and being a Midwesterner, I do.

The next day, I not only drove back to St. Louis, but 2 hours further to Columbia. While on my way I decided to take a detour and drop in on one of my old homes, Jasper Indiana. You may remember that I worked for Kimball during the time Kimball owned Bösendorfer. Kimball has its headquarters in Jasper and the piano factory (Kimball, not Bösendorfer) was about another 30 minutes up the road in French Lick.

Jasper is characteristic of many small midwestern cities; an old time feel without a lot of progress, deep cultural connections, in this case German and a strong work ethic. I was with Kimball for 8 years and only spent about 2 of them in Jasper and that was over 20 years ago. For this reason I didn’t really remember much, including that Jasper has an old time city square! But that didn’t matter, I remembered drinking at the Schnitz and some friends that I haven’t seen for ages and did not look up this time…too short, but someday.

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Then another 7 hours in the car to visit the University of Missouri at Columbia. Here they have a beautiful 25 year old Bösendorfer 290 Imperial. Instead of being stuck in the basement jazz lab, it proudly occupies the stage in the small primary recital hall. This piano has been well cared for but really needs some routine maintenance, including new hammers, strings and a set of whippens. The problem with high end pianos is that the tone deteriorates very slowly so even though people still claim to love this piano, I know that what they are hearing is a mere shadow of how it should and could sound. It has gobs of sustain so again, there is a beautiful piano lurking under a worn out set of hammers.

The new technician there, Lucy Erlacher, is great and dedicated to the idea of tonal diversity, and we’re going to help her anyway we can.

There was some recent news that seems to be universally misunderstood. The Bosendorfer factory in Wiener Neustadt is NOT moving. However, our administrative offices, currently on Graf Starhemberggasse in Vienna ARE moving to the factory in Wiener Neustadt.

The Graf Starhemberggasse facility used to the be the factory but now is mostly empty. The consolidation of space makes perfect business sense. The Salon on Bosendorferstrasse, in the back of the Musikverien will remain our primary presence in Vienna.

Voicing is one of the most critical aspects of piano maintenance and repair and perhaps the most mysterious. It’s mysterious because there is so little you can actually specify, unlike the precise measurements of key dip or let off.

Voicing is often referred to as “tone regulating” which has a more clear meaning. It is the technique of adjusting the various parameters that affect the tone of the piano. This of course includes regulation of the action and tuning. But most people consider voicing to be the manipulation of the density of the felt of the piano hammer. It is the image of the technician jabbing a tool with needles into each hammer.

More about voicing...

I’m working on my concept  that we, as manufacturers, need to get together to develop and promote the idea of the High End Piano Experience, rather than assume that everybody agrees with our premise that these things are worth a lot of money.

What is the HEPE? It’s the combination of an outstanding musical instrument and a product of supreme craftsmanship. The instrument needs to be one that is capable of giving an artist (at any level) a tool for exploring the real power of music to create and influence emotions. The product of craftsmanship should be associated with a long and noble history of the science and craft of piano building. The HEPE is best when experienced by a musician (of any level) but is not at all limited to those who play themselves. The craft aspects should appeal and give satisfaction to those that don’t play and the availability of a high quality musical instrument means that music can enter the scene at any moment.

Notice that I did not say the “art” of piano building. To me, Art refers to emotional communication and while a silent piano does stir the emotions in some of us, the real magic comes when a high quality piano is being used as a tool by a fine pianist. Therefore piano building is less Art and more high level craft. The only exception is in veneer and casework. The very best veneer work should, in the words of Don Bennett, “tell a story”. And boy, when done right, can it ever!

Veneer work

Here is a cool gadget from Dopplr that keeps track of my travels.

While in Boston I visited (finally) the famous North Bennet Street School and met the director of the Piano Department, David Betts and Debbie Cyr, one of the instructors. The school has somewhat mythical status in the US, being a very old, formal and well respected school of a variety of crafts, including book binding, jewelry making, furniture making and piano technology.

Deep in Bostons Italian North End, it’s in a charming area and a funky, very large building, oozing skill and craftsmanship. I’m going back to give a class and am going to try to find a piano that I can place there for awhile…they should have a Bosendorfer for close up inspection of European craftsmanship…they certainly have enough exposure to Steinway and M&H.

By the way, if you are at all familiar with Boston, what an amazing difference the Big Dig has made…the old Central Artery, which cut the city like the Berlin Wall is gone. There is sun, open space and a well groomed but very obvious scar very much similar to Berlin. Unbelievable improvement in downtown Boston. I’m glad I wasn’t there for the construction.

I’m still a little conflicted about this blog…on one hand the power of a blog is when the writer is completely honest about a topic people care about. The problem is that being completely honest may not be in my best business interest. No, no scandals about Bosendorfer using laminated soundboards. But other observations, experiences that may not look so good in print. On the other hand, nobody seems to be reading this..

I did a PTG presentation in Dayton OH that went, I thought, extremely well.  Not exactly a dynamic group with detailed questions, but they all stayed and stayed awake, which is the first measure of success. I think I do a good job with these tech presentations (“look…that’s a lot of CHALK!!”) and techs are influential, but what I need right now is short term business.

The fall selling season still has not started in earnest. Dealers are reporting being ahead overall of last year, but the high end seems stalled. Yes, economic uncertainty blah blah, but in the end you never really know what drives customers and in the absence of a specific outside reason, my conclusion is that I’m doing something wrong. That does not lead to restful nights.

Another big, beautiful promotion on the east coast, really beautiful presentation, with less than stellar results. My theory is that promotions just do not bring in our customers..they will buy when they are damn well good and ready, which makes it difficult to plan. However, I’ve got some ideas on that as well, and maybe putting some into action.

I’m at one of our valued dealers for a promotion. There is a lot going on and part of my time is spent laying low until I’m needed, so I’m catching up. While the national economic news is rather screwy, you wouldn’t know it by the sales traffic here. It is a good reminder that not all of America cares about the stock market and is not overextended on their mortgage.

We’ve got a North American dealers meeting in Vegas next week and I’m spending some time getting ready for that. We’ll have some good things to talk about

This trip included detailed discussion about a very particular rosewood finish, stimulating technical discussion at the factory (!) all set in gloomy early European winter weather, gray skies and rain, sometimes a lot.

The problem with traveling to interesting places on business is that you rarely get the time to really experience a city. I’ve been to Vienna at least 20 times and love it but still don’t really feel like I know my way around. It probably is partly the American idea that since I have never driven a car around, how can I be expected to know anything?

On the Saturday I left, I had lunch with Rupert L and his 2 sons at the Cafe Central, one of the real Viennese coffee houses. What really great experience! Rupert intentionally brings his sons regularly so they can learn true Viennese culture.