I think I've said this before, but I'll say it again: I wouldn't have a
pianola, had it not been for the MMD and for Julian Dyer alerting me to 
the Weber on eBay that the seller ended up giving to me because she didn't
have room for it in her new home.

My older son, who was about thirty at the time and is a computer
animator/game tester by profession, was so intrigued by the pianola
that he jumped at the chance to educate himself about it.  We got a
couple of books, we took lots of pictures so we could compare and
contrast, and understand what was going on.  With some slight adjust-
ment the Weber does play fairly well; but it has some problems that we
would like diagnosed.

The sad thing is that there are apparently some snobs on the MMD, and
we managed to locate one.  He offered to help, and then told us that
our Weber was good for firewood, without even doing us the courtesy of
looking at it.

Sometimes it is really difficult to keep one's sense of comradeship and
humor.  My personal experience has been that some people in this world
love mechanical music and others couldn't care less, regardless of
their ages.  I think grace, courtesy, and well-made instruments trump
everything ... and those qualities are ageless.

Claudine Jones
San Francisco Bay Area