Bird-Cages/Fogger/Snide remarks

[Farrell]

Hey Joe. Ease up a little! Are you referring to my post to Terry suggesting
that he give it a go but to expect a bad experience?

I have only worked on one birdcage, and have inspected four or five others.
The several I inspected, the owners quickly realized the futility of even
trying to tune them. It's pretty clear that these were not terribly good
pianos 120 years ago when they were made. They didn't improve much over the
last 120 years. I would rather work on 20 typical old uprights than one
birdcage. The ones I have seen have been absolutely horrid little pianos.

I'm not trying to verbally degrade them for no reason, but rather just
sharing my observations. If you have had different experiences, please share
them with us. I would certainly be interested in hearing about the
overdamper design origin.

Boy, I guess me or someone really struck a nerve of yours. I'm sorry. I
certainly did not mean to rile you or anyone else. I was just trying to coax
Terry into taking a stab at his first one.

Would I put a "Fogger" in a Steinway K52? Not likely. It might cost too
much. If I thought I could sell it for some cash and not ever have to
service it, I would sell it. If I thought I could not get much for it, I
might consider detonating a stick of dynamite in it.

All in good humor Joe. Take care.

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joseph Garrett" <joegarrett@earthlink.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 11:26 AM
Subject: Bird-Cages/Fogger/Snide remarks


> All,
> Would you put a "Fogger" in a Steinway K52?
> My personal opinion about the snide remarks re. Bird-cage pianos is: you
> either are too inept to be able to tune one properly OR you are busy/lazy
> enough, so that you can condem ALL Bird-cage pianos without worrying about
> lose of revenue or reputation. Yes, my Flame Suit is in place. I'm really
> getting tired of the comments, re Bird-cages. My question to all who would
> condem is: Do you know the purpose of the design? If you can answer that,
> then we'll talk.
> Joe Garrett, RPT, (Oregon)
>