Hi all, After reading the Digests of the last two days, I had throw
in another two cents.  First of all, Roy Ulrich, in Virginia City, MN
must have a better rapport with Schmitt's than I do [MMDigest 990116].
Kudos to you, Roy!

I did have a small tiff over a junk piano being pushed on one of my
customers by a Schmitt's salesman a couple of years ago (she didn't buy
it by the way, it was one of the junk Everetts) and Kevin Stock, the
Schmitt's warehouse manager in Brooklyn Park, MN sort of blacklisted
me.  However, I have tuned some of the Schmitt's pianos and the cus-
tomers still tell me that they had no idea a piano should be tuned
twice a year!

Secondly, I agree wholeheartedly with Don Teach's observation on Yamaha
pianos.  I currently have the one that I learned to play on in my house
(storing it for my sister, who now owns it).  It's thirty years old,
holds a tune magnificently, despite being moved from California to
Colorado to California to North Carolina to Minnesota in it's thirty
years.

I has no posts behind the soundboard, and has better tonal quality
than any other console I've played except for a 1963 Sohmer & Sons that
I sold a couple of years ago.  All that I have to do for the Yamaha is
voice it, as the hammers have hardened considerably over the years.
(My sister was a music major in college, and her husband also plays
incessantly).  I _do_ recommend Yamahas to people when they ask about
new pianos.

Incidentally, Friday I tuned another Korean (cringe) baby grand,
a Daewoo Sojinn.  No better than the last few I've dealt with.

If any of you ever run into a Belarus piano (from Russia, with no
love), the last one of those that I did should have been completely
rebuilt when it arrived at the piano store that it was sold from.

The Czechoslovakian Petrofs appear to be well made though.  We have one
at the church I attend and I've been maintaining it for the last three
years, with the only problem being the action responds adversely to our
extreme humidity differences here in the Midwest (even with a humidity
control system installed).

Well, I guess that was more like a nickel's worth than two cents...

Musically,
Dan Armstrong
Armstrong Piano Tuning & Repair
Pine River, MN