Not to be thankful for

I just got home from playing for the Thanksgiving diners at the local yacht club. Should have been an easy gig. Three hours of dinner music. Not. The club has a relatively new Samick grand. I am exhausted. This piano cannot be played with a light touch. The action is so bad that light arpeggios sound maybe every third note. To exacerbate the problem, the piano's tone is so bright and harsh that you need to play light, which you cannot do because of the f***ing action.

Why do people continue to buy this junk? What keeps Samick in business? Why do stores sell Samicks? They perpetuate a fraud on consumers.

I have never met a Samick I didn't hate. I am exhausted.

Al Stevens

I find the soft pedal helps darken the tone of these pianos, then you can play a little harder too. But...I know what you mean.

Because they don't cost much and they don't know any better. Also, guys like you and me have to play on them, the owners don't know how to play.

Yacht clubs, restaurants, retirees and families that want a 'grand' buy them. That encourages the company to keep making them.

Because the above are buying them.

That's arguable. A good tech can make them feel better to the player. Stores just don't do the prep work and neither will the end user unless it is sold to a player. To the yacht club, it's a new shiny piano. They won't invest $300 to make it playable for you.

It's tempting to feel that way. They get a worse than deserved rap due to the lack of prep. Actually, they seem to have gotten better over the years. Still they are not great pianos but sell well because they are a piano and the buyer often doesn't know the difference.

In contrast to your gig, I played at my favorite country club - nearly 5 hours and I feel satisfied...thankful. I sold them my 1987 Baldwin L last year. Other than a nasty squeak in the sustain pedal, it was good to play an instrument that I lived with for 12 years, eat country club food and get country club pay. For me it was a fine day.

Hope all is better now that you're done.

Food? The yacht club doesn't even let me sit at the bar on a break. But the money is good. I took a sandwich and ate it in the car.

Al Stevens

actually, with me last year it was quite the opposite : the money was non-existing, but I could eat whatever I wanted in the restaurant..... I have to say, since I'm not playing for a living but for hobby, this arrangement suited me fine.... )))