Hi List, My name is Wim Vermeyen.  l live in Ekeren (that's in Belgium,
a small country in Europe).  I'm a piano tuner and repairer.  Some of
you might have seen me on the Pianotech list.

l always had this fascination for mechanical instruments in general, and
more specifically the player-pianos.  I tune a player once in a while,
but repairing them is wholly another story -- until l was asked to take
a look at three players in a period of one month.

That did it!  l went looking on the web for more information, and
I came upon the Web Ring for player pianos.  Sam Harris advised me
to buy "Player Piano Servicing and Rebuilding" [by Art Reblitz].  My
wife gave it to me for Christmas. :)  Now I'm reading (and studying).

l hope to learn a lot more about player piano's and to rebuild one
(or more).  Last Thursday l had a chat on Pianotech with Jon Page,
and he advised me to subscribe to the MMD.  So here l am.

l already did some research but l never found a dealer for spare parts
in Europe.  Have l searched the wrong sources??  I already saw some
addresses in Canada and the US.

Hope l can learn here.  :)

Best regards,

Wim Vermeyen
Wim's Piano Service
Ekeren, Belgium
email: wim.debby@village.uunet.be

 [ Gee, Wim, on the map Belgium looks pretty big!  ;)  Is Ekeren in the
 [ Flemish- or French-speaking portion?  I'm very interested in your
 [ opinion of the quality of the modern pianos in Europe.  What
 [ companies now build the parts for the piano action?  Who controls
 [ the former Ludwig Hupfeld factory in Leipzig (990110 MMDigest)?
 [ You can read all the recent MMDigests about this subject by using
 [ your web browser to access the MMD FTP site at
 [
 [    ftp://mmd.foxtail.com/pub/mechanical-music/digests/
 [
 [ Welcome aboard MMD!  -- Robbie