<HTML>In a message dated 9/4/01 9:25:00 AM Central Daylight Time, pryan2@the-beach.net (Phil Ryan) writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Is there such a thing as a Betsy Ross piano?   </BLOCKQUOTE> Phil, As you might expect, my opinion is with the minority.  Anyone who uses the acronym, "PSO" is only announcing to the world his or her pompous and over inflated sense of self importance. As a matter of fact, there is a local school teacher who teaches music, principally strings who asked me to locate a Betsy Ross Spinet for him if I could.  He had grown up on one and considered it the most charming treasure of his youth and wanted one for his living room.   As you might imagine, I was greeted with guffaws when I called local dealers telling them of the request. So, I watched the papers until I found one and arranged the sale.  When it was delivered to the home, I did a full reconditioning job including the elbows.  I got the same kind of money I would have gotten working for that amount of time on any other kind of piano, including a Steinway. It's true that some of these have back failure and split bridges.  Back failure is rather rare but can and does occur with nearly every make.  Those, I would not try to repair but if you have just a little bass bridge splitting, it can mean some good money in your pocket. A full elbow job replacement is a tedious job that is worth good money.  The action probably needs to be removed, tightened, aligned and have the hammers filed too.  Combine this with key leveling, let off and the lost motion adjustment after elbow replacement and you have a full day's work or more. Ask yourself this whether you have just a little or a lot to do:  Are YOU in a position to scoff at the piano, call it a "PSO" and make the customer feel stupid and ignorant for having this worthless piece of junk in their living room and *wasting* your time by calling you, making you *stoop* beneath your dignity to address the situation?  If so, go ahead and yell at the customer over the phone, tell them that the Betsy Ross Spinet is NOT a piano and that you only work on Steinway Grands.   If not, go ahead and make a nice living providing honest, high quality service to a customer who really appreciates your skills and what you are able to do with the piano they have and consider a treasure in their home. It's your choice. Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin</HTML>