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<DIV>Way to go, Wim! I knew my Technical Examiner could come =
through with
flying colors. My thoughts and prayers have been with you!</DIV>
<DIV>Joy!</DIV>
<DIV>Elwood</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Elwood Doss, Jr.<BR>Piano Technician/Technical =
Director<BR>Department of
Music<BR>106 Fine Arts Building<BR>University of Tennessee at =
Martin<BR>Martin,
TN 38238<BR>731-587-1152</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; =
BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: =
black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=Wimblees@aol.com =
href="mailto:Wimblees@aol.com">Wimblees@aol.com</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=caut@ptg.org
href="mailto:caut@ptg.org">caut@ptg.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, February 29, 2004 =
8:29
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> consultant dilemma =
epilogue
</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I want to give an update on the consultant issue I posed a couple =
of
months ago, and tell you that the issue has more or less resolved
itself. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If you recall, the chairman of the music department, with the =
backing of
some of the piano faculty, was going to get a consultant in to look at =
the
main concert Steinway D, because it was "dead." Since then, I have, =
without
anyone knowing it, lacquered the hammers, voiced it, and given it =
real
good regulation. I also made sure the touch weight was very even, =
(down in the
45 - 48 gram range and up in the 23 - 26 gram range.)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I kept asking permission to do this work, but the chair and one =
of the
faculty members was reluctant to have me do this, for no other reason =
than
they wanted to show the consulted how bad the piano was. I kept =
saying, "allow
me to show you what I can do, and then if you still don't like it, get =
the
consultant in here." Also, the chair was adamant to get a private =
consultant
in here, while the piano faculty was leaning towards getting someone =
from
Steinway here. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Well, finally on Friday, the issue was resolved in a very =
amicable way.
Franz Mohr was in Birmingham for a book signing and to give a lecture =
at a
symphony concert. The owner of the Steinway piano store, for whom =
I do
some work and has been aware of the situation, asked me if Franz =
could
come over and look at the piano. I said yes, that would be great. When =
he got
here, I got the chair and the piano faculty to hear Franz say =
that
basically the piano was in great shape, that the =
regulation was very
good, but that about 2 dozen hammers needed to be voiced up, =
and
that all the piano needed was about a days worth of work to
finish it off. He even got out his own juice and =
took care
of about 6 hammers. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>It was nice to have him come and give the piano his blessing. =
Yesterday
and this morning I worked for about 4 hours on the piano and this =
afternoon the piano was played for a voice recital. The =
piano player
loved it, as did the piano faculty members and the chair who came =
to
listen. (I never told anyone about the work I had done earlier. I'll =
just
leave that for myself. Having Franz tell me the piano was in great =
shape is
enough patting on the back). </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Thanks to all of you who gave advice. It helped me get over some =
of the
feelings I had, and helped me deal with this situation. As I said, it =
all
worked out, and we now have a fantastic instrument for our concert =
hall.
</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Wim </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 PTSIZE="10" =
FAMILY="SANSSERIF">Willem
Blees, RPT<BR>Piano Technician<BR>School of Music<BR>University of
Alabama</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>