Re: 971017 MMDigest

John Miller wrote:

> I receive a great deal of pleasure out of my "partially restored"
> instrument.  Yes, it would be nice to have it working 100%, but thats
> not an option for me, and I don't understand why there are those out
> there who would put me down for simply "keeping it going".

I would certainly not put you or anyone down for keeping a player going.
It sounds like you are doing your own work.  I respect that, and we all
started there.  I simply do not have enough hours in the day to fix one
thing and continue to make return trips to the same customer replacing each
item as it fails.  I do only complete restorations.  I have way more
restoration work than I can ever get done.  I keep a 2 year waiting list
and a list of people waiting to get on the waiting list.  I have a fee
schedule that divides right down the middle Phase I being piano restoration
and Phase II being player.  I do not do any half jobs on either of these
phases.  I do not have to.  There are other local technicians who will do
the patch and repair work.   When the customer is tired of constant
attention to the piano they come to me and I do a complete restoration for
them.  I know what the other local technicians do to fix things, because I
see their work when I redo it.

I personally cannot enjoy a player piano that is only mostly working.  I am
not a snob about it being done right, I just can't have fun listening to a
piano that sounds bad or plays poorly.  We do what we do to be able to
enjoy the music, right?  When your pianos gets to the point of your not
being able to enjoy it you fix something else on it.  I just prevent the
continuous repair jobs by preempting that possibility.

D. L. Bullock Piano World  St.Louis