informal survey

[Guy, Karen, and Tor Nichols]

List,

	Happy holidays, and may you find yourself with a few moments for yourself.

	I'd like to ask a favor, for sometime when you feel like spending some of
those "spare" moments. I'm interested in your opinions and ideas as regards
the "critique" of rebuilt pianos. 
	
	Let me sorta preface by saying that we've all seen posts about this or
that piano, that we get to service AFTER it's been rebuilt by another
tech/shop/company/homeowner, or whatever. We all know what is that "flips
our switch", good or bad, when we sit down to one of these pianos, and
start to discover...... stuff. It's easy to see the good stuff, like nice
coils and tuning pin heights and rubber buttons and action felt and hammer
lines and let-off distances and and and..... you know. It's human nature
AND the amazing ability of the brain for pattern-recognition that makes us
jump on to the bad stuff, like coils and t-pin heights and action felt and
hammer lines and and... you get the idea.

	Far from looking for complaints only, or hunting for slime on a particular
manufacturer/shop/dealer/tech, etc., I think it could be of great benefit
to us all (rebuilders/tuners/dealers) to have an idea of just what it is,
really, that drives us bonkers, or even better, makes us go "Wow... wish
I'd done that."  You know.... flips our switch.

	For example:

	What do you notice first?
	What do you actually "look" for?
	What's the most important? (could be categorized, 'cause there's lot's
                                                                  of
important stuff)
	What would you LIKE to see?
	What would you like "standardized"?
	Do you want a reference, inside the piano, to know who's responsible,
                                                            with a contact
phone #, or something like that?
	What ticks you off the most?
	What makes you drool?
	What do you wish you could do? Or afford to do on your next rebuild?
	Do you ever"pre-judge" a rebuilt piano based on the brand or rebuilder
                                    or some other factor?
	
	Well, you can tell the questions cover a wide range, and starting to get
less useful, but there they are. If you have a moment or two for any or
all, I'd appreciate it, and I think that your serious answers can go to the
list without catching too much wrath for wasted band-width.

	We all know that there is quite a difference between what we "judge" and
what the customer expects or wants, so those disparities can be considered
useless and redundant. What we all can use, as a tool, is the knowledge of
how a particular rebuild job is received by our peers, competitors, and
heroes.

	No one ever built a statue in honor of a critic.


Thanks, and Happy New Year.

Guy Nichols, RPT, corner of cactus-and-rock in the cold stinkin' desert