Dan Wilson wrote:


>> I'm not sure I've ever heard one restorer say of another,
>> "I really admire his/her work, it's just how it should be done
>> and reasonably priced too".  Most seem to characterize the others
>> -- especially when both are really good, from my perspective as
>> a user -- as dangerous fools.


Yes, it is unfortunate that these days, piano people feel they must
trash all other piano people when it comes to work that has been
completed.  More than one of the local piano dealers have been caught
on tape making up all sorts of lies about me.  My attorney sent
threatening letters and the lies stopped.  I don't feel the need to
trash other folks work.  If I find an instrument with a rebuild quality
worthy of note, I say so.  Seldom does anyone know who did the work,
however, if I ask.

I do get to see the work of many of the former and present rebuilders
when I get to re-rebuild their work.  If the work is quality, I say so.
I also point out that the reason for the failure is Durrell's cloth,
leather, Polylon, or Perflex deteriorating in only a few years.

However, I also get to see some of the worst examples of player pianos
where people did not restore them but simply restored something in
their general direction without much of the restoration having reached
the piano. <G> I still do not badmouth the rebuilders.  I only say
something if I am asked directly what I think of their work.  My
response is an attempt at understating the problem in most cases.

I am no prima donna.  There is nothing that I do that any one of the
people reading this can't do.  I simply know how to do it in a timely
manner without much cogitation between jobs which allows us to get the
work out fast enough to hopefully make a living.  I also stand behind
my work as long as the customer calls me within my five year rebuild
warranty period.

I came up in a time when the piano dealers sent each other business and
did not try to cut the other guys throat like is done today.

D.L. Bullock    St. Louis
http://www.thepianoworld.com/