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               Piano-building was once one of the country’s largest industries. Today, only two companies remain in business. by Zachary Crockett.
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                Issue #225
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                Sunday, September 25, 2022
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            <h2 style="font-size: 30px; font-family: 'Oswald', 'Roboto', helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 25px;">
             <strong>
              How one of America’s last piano manufacturers stays alive
             </strong>
            </h2>
            <p style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 120%; padding-bottom: 10px; font-style: italic; color: #737373; margin: 0;">
             Piano-building was once one of the country’s largest industries. Today, only two companies remain in business.
            </p>
            <p style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 120%; padding-bottom: 24px; margin: 0;">
             <strong>
              BY
              <a style="color: #121212; text-decoration: underline !important; text-transform: uppercase;">
               Zachary Crockett
              </a>
             </strong>
            </p>
           </td>
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            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Inside an old brick building in the leafy town of Haverhill, Massachusetts, you’ll find one of the last vestiges of a once-formidable industry.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Entering the six-story structure is like going back in time: Stacks of kiln-dried maple wood line the walls. Artisans carefully tinker with tuning pins and soundboards. A light tinkling of classical music rises above the whir and putter of 100-year-old machines.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Not long ago, piano factories like this were one of America’s largest and most formidable industries, employing tens of thousands of workers.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Today, only two remain: Steinway &amp; Sons in New York, and this place —
             <strong>
              Mason &amp; Hamlin
             </strong>
             .
            </p>
           </td>
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            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Ffinal_size-office_20220924211552.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLiJ9:1ocP8b:zfgMq-CU9j_aM-rGdx5Vz4l9TSW7Ri3-zoRDxn0N7mQ" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
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             Mason &amp; Hamlin’s six-story piano manufacturing facility in Haverhill, Massachusetts (Zachary Crockett / The Hustle)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Over the past century, nearly all American piano manufacturers have been eradicated by foreign competition, declining domestic craftsmanship, and the rise of competing technologies.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             But Mason &amp; Hamlin has survived largely by turning to the past, drawing inspiration from a bygone era of artisanry.
            </p>
            <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; padding-top: 8px; margin: 0px;">
             <strong>
              The golden age of the piano
             </strong>
            </h4>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Until the late 1700s, the majority of pianos were
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              built
             </a>
             in Europe, first in Vienna, and later in Great Britain.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             But by the
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              turn of the 18th century
             </a>
             , pianos had made their way to the US — and soon, a burgeoning manufacturing industry emerged in industrial hubs like New York and Boston.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             <strong>
              William Hettrick
             </strong>
             , a professor of music at Hofstra University, told
             <em>
              The Hustle
             </em>
             that hundreds of piano makers popped up throughout the mid- to late-1800s. Chief among them:
            </p>
            <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px; margin: 0;">
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <strong>
               Chickering &amp; Sons
              </strong>
              (1823) established itself as one of the country’s largest producers, putting out 2k+ pianos per year.
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <strong>
               Steinway
              </strong>
              (1853) became such a prominent business in New York that it had its own
              <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
               company town
              </a>
              within the city that included a foundry, a sawmill, a kindergarten, and its own fire department.
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
               <strong>
                Joseph P. Hale
               </strong>
              </a>
              (often called “the father of the commercial piano”) used an assembly-line process that churned out thousands of pianos at a cheaper price point.
             </li>
            </ul>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             This production was coupled with aggressive
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              marketing campaigns
             </a>
             .
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             “Piano ads were everywhere,”
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              wrote
             </a>
             one historian. “It was widely believed that spending money on a piano wasn’t really spending. The money you paid would be embedded right there in this beautiful and useful item. So people would make great sacrifices for these instruments.”
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The piano quickly became a must-have in American households — so much so, that in 1867, the historian James Parton
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              declared
             </a>
             that “the piano was only less important to the American home than the kitchen stove.”
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
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           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Ffinal_size-ads_20220924211628.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLiJ9:1ocP8b:zfgMq-CU9j_aM-rGdx5Vz4l9TSW7Ri3-zoRDxn0N7mQ" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
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             Early ads touted the piano as an investment in refinement and taste (various newspapers, c.1800s)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             <strong>
              Mason &amp; Hamlin
             </strong>
             was relatively late to the piano party.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Launched in 1854 by
             <strong>
              Henry Mason
             </strong>
             (the son of a hymn composer) and
             <strong>
              Emmons Hamlin
             </strong>
             (a mechanic and inventor), the company produced pump organs for many years before switching to pianos in the 1880s.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             But the market was still ripe for growth, and the company was soon selling up to 500 pianos per year to composers and prominent families throughout Massachusetts.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Between 1869 and 1905, the number of pianos produced in America swelled from
             <strong>
              25k to 261k
             </strong>
             units per year. Piano manufacturing became one of the largest industries in the US, responsible for more than
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              50%
             </a>
             of global production.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Then, things came to a grinding halt.
            </p>
            <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; padding-top: 8px; margin: 0px;">
             <strong>
              The bust
             </strong>
            </h4>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             In the 1920s, a confluence of factors dragged piano sales down:
            </p>
            <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px; margin: 0;">
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              The commercialization of
              <strong>
               automobiles
              </strong>
              opened up new avenues for entertainment outside of the home.
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              The commercialization of
              <strong>
               radio
              </strong>
              created a competing source of entertainment inside the home.
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              The
              <strong>
               stock market crash of 1929
              </strong>
              <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
               tanked
              </a>
              disposable income.
             </li>
            </ul>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             During the ensuing Great Depression, piano sales virtually fell off a cliff. Between
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              1929 and 1931
             </a>
             :
            </p>
            <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px; margin: 0;">
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <strong>
               The number of pianos sold
              </strong>
              fell from 350k+ to less than 60k units per year
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <strong>
               Total US piano sales
              </strong>
              declined from
              <strong>
               $42m to $15m
              </strong>
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <strong>
               85%
              </strong>
              of piano workers were laid off
             </li>
            </ul>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The state of affairs only worsened when, during
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              World War II rationing
             </a>
             , many piano factories had to pivot to producing military gliders and coffins.
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Ffinal_size-piano%2520production_20220924211701.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLiJ9:1ocP8b:zfgMq-CU9j_aM-rGdx5Vz4l9TSW7Ri3-zoRDxn0N7mQ" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: 'Roboto', helvetica, sans-serif; color: #192733; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; padding-bottom: 10px; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px;">
             US piano production declined precipitously following the 1929 stock crash (Zachary Crockett / The Hustle)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Mason &amp; Hamlin, which was known for its high quality and attention to detail, soon fell on hard times.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The company changed hands numerous times before getting snatched up in 1929 by Aeolian, a competitor,
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              for
             </a>
             <strong>
              $450k
             </strong>
             (~$7.7m in today’s money). A few years later, Aeolian merged with American Piano Company and moved operations from Massachusetts to Rochester, New York.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Under new leadership, and in a new era of capitalism, Mason &amp; Hamlin’s craftsmanship slowly deteriorated.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             “They started making a lot of economic concessions,”
             <strong>
              Tom Lagomarsino
             </strong>
             , Mason &amp; Hamlin’s current EVP, told
             <em>
              The Hustle
             </em>
             . “They switched from maple to mahogany, then to poplar wood. The quality took a big hit.”
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Ffinal_size-montage1_20220924211730.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLiJ9:1ocP8b:zfgMq-CU9j_aM-rGdx5Vz4l9TSW7Ri3-zoRDxn0N7mQ" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: 'Roboto', helvetica, sans-serif; color: #192733; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; padding-bottom: 10px; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px;">
             The beginning stages of Mason &amp; Hamlin’s piano construction at the company’s factory in Haverhill, Massachusetts: Wood is selected, shaped into rims, and dried out for up to 30 days (Zachary Crockett / The Hustle)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             In the 1960s, the once-formidable US piano industry hit more snags:
            </p>
            <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px; margin: 0;">
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              The
              <strong>
               TV
              </strong>
              took over as the definitive entertainment source in American households.
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <strong>
               Record players
              </strong>
              and a cultural shift toward
              <strong>
               rock music
              </strong>
              chipped away at the appeal of pianos and classical music.
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <strong>
               Foreign competition
              </strong>
              began to creep into the US piano market.
             </li>
            </ul>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Japanese manufacturers, who had been building their own pianos since 1900 with lower labor costs, sensed an opportunity to enter the US market at a lower price point.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             In the
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              early 1960s
             </a>
             , Japan’s largest manufacturer,
             <strong>
              Yamaha
             </strong>
             , established a foothold in the US and began distributing pianos to American consumers. Within a decade, foreign builders from Japan, Korea, and China had more than doubled the sales volume of US manufacturers.
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Ffinal_size-montage%25202_20220924211801.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLiJ9:1ocP8b:zfgMq-CU9j_aM-rGdx5Vz4l9TSW7Ri3-zoRDxn0N7mQ" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: 'Roboto', helvetica, sans-serif; color: #192733; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; padding-bottom: 10px; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px;">
             Parts of the piano-building process at the Mason &amp; Hamlin factory (Zachary Crockett / The Hustle)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             American piano builders all but disappeared: By the mid-1990s,
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              only nine
             </a>
             remained in business.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             A once-bustling US industry was largely dead.
            </p>
            <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; padding-top: 8px; margin: 0px;">
             <strong>
              A comeback
             </strong>
            </h4>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             In 1996, an entrepreneur named
             <strong>
              Kirk Burgett
             </strong>
             saw an opportunity to revive one of the US’s last piano manufacturers.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             A decade earlier, Burgett and his brother had invented
             <strong>
              PianoDisc
             </strong>
             , a device that enables a piano to play itself for guests. The company grew rapidly and sold 120k units to customers including Nancy Pelosi, Bill Gates, and pro sports stars.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Burgett caught wind that Mason &amp; Hamlin, one of the preeminent piano manufacturers of the golden age, was up for purchase in bankruptcy court.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             “We just decided to take a risk and save it,” Burgett told
             <em>
              The Hustle
             </em>
             during a recent visit to the company’s Haverhill factory.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             When Burgett bought Mason &amp; Hamlin, it was a “husk.”
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             “The creditors gutted the building of inventory,” says Burgett. “We didn’t get a single piano out of it.”
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Ffinal_size-montage%25203_20220924211833.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLiJ9:1ocP8b:zfgMq-CU9j_aM-rGdx5Vz4l9TSW7Ri3-zoRDxn0N7mQ" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: 'Roboto', helvetica, sans-serif; color: #192733; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; padding-bottom: 10px; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px;">
             Pianos begin to come together after a months-long process at the Mason &amp; Hamlin factory (Zachary Crockett / The Hustle)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Burgett realized that the greatest pianos were those built during the golden age in the early 1900s.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             So, he slowly started to rebuild — by turning to the past.
            </p>
            <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px; margin: 0;">
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              He hired a team of three engineers to digitally reconstruct blueprints of the high-quality pianos the company gained a reputation for in the early 1900s.
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              He turned back to many of the original innovations and materials the company had used a century earlier.
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              He spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on specialized tools, many of which were decades old.
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              He equipped each piano with a tension resonator, a device pioneered by
              <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
               Richard Gertz
              </a>
              , a Mason &amp; Hamlin engineer, in 1895.
             </li>
            </ul>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Unlike other business builders, who push things out before they’re ready, Burgett invested in quality over quantity.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             It took him and his team an
             <strong>
              entire year to produce the first piano
             </strong>
             , and the company’s first employees went through a two-year training process to build a product up to the standards of 19th- and 20th-century craftsmanship.
            </p>
            <h4 style="font-size: 17px; height: 100%; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px; padding-top: 8px; margin: 0px;">
             <strong>
              And then there were two
             </strong>
            </h4>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Today, Mason &amp; Hamlin is one of just two remaining piano manufacturers in the US. The other is Steinway.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             While Steinway enjoys a more prominent brand and a larger market share, Mason &amp; Hamlin is boutique, producing around
             <strong>
              2.5 pianos
             </strong>
             <strong>
              per week
             </strong>
             .
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Though the production process is now more efficient, it still takes the company up to 9 months to build a concert grand piano, which retails for
             <strong>
              $175k
             </strong>
             .
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             “There’s really no shortcut to the process,” says Lagomarsino, Mason &amp; Hamlin’s EVP.
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Ffinal_size-kirk_20220924211907.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLiJ9:1ocP8b:zfgMq-CU9j_aM-rGdx5Vz4l9TSW7Ri3-zoRDxn0N7mQ" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: 'Roboto', helvetica, sans-serif; color: #192733; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; padding-bottom: 10px; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px;">
             Kirk Burgett stands with one of his Mason &amp; Hamlin pianos (Zachary Crockett / The Hustle)
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             In the factory, the
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              complexity
             </a>
             of this process — which spans six floors and requires the labor of dozens of workers — is on full display. One piano requires anywhere from 150 to 400+ hours to complete.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Among the steps:
            </p>
            <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px; margin: 0;">
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Hardrock maple is carefully selected to withstand humid summers and frigid winters without warping.
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Rims, which form the shape of the piano, are cut, bent, and stored in a heated room for up to 30 days.
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Bracing structures are fitted in place, along with a tension resonator, which prevents the wood from contracting.
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              A spruce soundboard is cut and fitted with ribs
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Hundreds of notches are hand-cut in the bridge
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Polyester paint is applied
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              A maple pin block is drilled and hundreds of wires are manually installed, along with tuning pins
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              The piano is tuned and tested with up to 40m keystrokes
             </li>
            </ul>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Burgett says that despite the setbacks the piano industry has faced over the years, business is good.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             The company is back-ordered for six months, with robust demand from schools, churches, musicians, and wealthy professionals. During covid, interest in pianos increased significantly, with acoustic piano sales seeing a
             <strong>
              46%
             </strong>
             boost in sales volume in the 2020 fiscal year.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             “People were stuck at home and had money to buy pianos,” says Lagomarsino. “There was also a shortage of foreign pianos due to astronomical freight costs and delays. Docks were closed. So there was a revitalized demand on the homefront.”
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%252Ffinal_size-broaderdata_20220924211937.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0aGRhaWx5LnMzLiJ9:1ocP8b:zfgMq-CU9j_aM-rGdx5Vz4l9TSW7Ri3-zoRDxn0N7mQ" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: 'Roboto', helvetica, sans-serif; color: #192733; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; padding-bottom: 10px; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px;">
             Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Globally, sales of acoustic pianos in 2021 amounted to
             <strong>
              $403m
             </strong>
             . Of 29.2k units sold, only around
             <strong>
              3k
             </strong>
             (~10%) were produced in the US.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             But Mason &amp; Hamlin’s main challenge as a business isn’t globalized production; it’s the fight to keep a 300-year-old product relevant as new technologies — video games, computers, the internet, cellphones — eat up an
             <a style="color: #192733; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              increasing share
             </a>
             of consumers’ leisure time.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             “Our competition isn’t other piano manufacturers,” says Burgett. “It’s other forms of entertainment. People spend $250k on home audio systems, but they still won’t buy a piano.”
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Burgett doesn’t think piano sales will ever return to golden age levels. But he knows his business still has more notes to hit.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             “People thank us for keeping the company alive and bringing back these pianos,” says Burgett. “The legacy of these instruments is just too strong to die.”
            </p>
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                How to best break down your competitors
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                 Perform a proper competitive analysis:
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               </h4>
               <ol style="font-size: 16px;">
                <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
                 Identify direct/indirect competitors
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                <li style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
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                 Sleuth their sales processes
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                 Compare pricing strategies
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