Hi All,  I have to say I agree with Mickey Sadler one hundred percent.
I kid my friends that I am Don Quichotte.  I would rather take something
apart and fix it, than to buy something new.  I have one hobby store and
one hardware store near me where I can buy materials.  To say they are
seeing hard times is an understatement!  The man who owns the hobby
store does not expect to ever see good times again.  He says all his
customers are adults.  According to him kids only want video games.
The model builders are all gone!

I hang out at the hardware store all the time.  The people who come
into the hardware store fall into two categories: very old people
looking for items that are no longer sold at the store, or young wise
guys who have to mention Home Depot on the way out.  The biggest item
at the hardware store is making keys.

My local old high school took out both the wood shop and the metal shop.
They replaced them with weight rooms just like in prison!  Just like
Mickey, I love my computer but I also know it is killing off a lot of
neat hobbies.  The ham radio flea markets are really taking a beating.
I go looking for old radios and all I see is large heaps of old
computers.

I had great hopes for the Internet but I now see a dark side emerging.
The head dweeb who will remain nameless is trying to get his mitts on
search engines.  If this trend continues people will never see the
mechanical music sites.  Mr. Dweeb has found away to get $49 a month
out of people just to have their sites registered on the net.

Now with all these negative trends in mind I say take the piano apart!
So you mess it up!  Messing around is fun!  "Damn the torpedos, full
speed ahead."  "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."  "When all else fails
read the manual."

The only failure is not trying.  All that is, and all that will be,
will all end up as trash.

Happy Holiday

John Kleinbauer