<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16587" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV><STRONG><EM> David</EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>   I'd love to see the sequel to the movie "A Day without a Mexican" any body see that?  Mine would be called be called"A day without a piano tuner"  Then we'd know if we are missed or not.  I predict that unless new young blood start getting into the business<FONT size=4> now</FONT> that someday in many places it will be impossible to get one tuned for lack of a warm body. In every area I'm familiar with out here all the  guys are getting on in age. My son is the youngest at 22, then another guy at 50 then me & so on. Folks don't' understand that WE as a group are a getting to be a rare commodity.</EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  Encourage young blood to consider this so all us left over hippies (grin) have someone to leave our knowledge & legacy to.</EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  Dale</EM></STRONG></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>n piano tuning we give at least an hour, all-in, of very concentrated<BR>highly-skilled time,  and during that hour the skill is being fully<BR>applied all the time.  But we can't in general charge rates comparable to<BR>the stove or drain persons.</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV> <STRONG><EM>For us it's almost always more than an hour & usually  2 hours because we do other things to improve then piano</EM></STRONG></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>On the domestic front, if we all hiked our prices up to electrician or<BR>plumber heights, people simply wouldn't get the piano tuned, and we<BR>wouldn't get work, and homes would have out-of-tune pianos.</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>  <STRONG><EM>O come on. Kindly Wake up & smell the coffee</EM></STRONG><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>  Perhaps there<BR>would be negligible difference to the economy.<BR><BR>But what of tunings for recitals and studio recordings?  If there were no<BR>in-tune pianos, would the piano be almost instantly wiped out as a musical<BR>instrument and replaced with electronic keyboards?  Would pianos simply no<BR>longer be featured in recordings?  Would CD sales drop?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  The acoustic piano will always be here but it may only be the high end , so take aim now or perhaps become an electrician</EM></STRONG>?<STRONG><EM> I  make more than those guys ....as do many on this list.</EM></STRONG></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2><BR><BR>I don't know!<BR><BR><BR>Best,<BR><BR>David.<BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT lang=0 face="Book Antiqua" size=2 FAMILY="SERIF" PTSIZE="10"><B><I></I>Dale Erwin--Piano Restorations<BR>4721 Parker rd<BR>Modesto, Ca. 95357<BR>Shop 209-577-8397<BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 face="Abadi MT Condensed" color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"></FONT><FONT lang=0 face="Abadi MT Condensed" color=#000000 size=3 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="12">Web site <A href="http://www.erwinspiano.com/">http://www.Erwinspiano.com</A></FONT><FONT lang=0 face="Abadi MT Condensed" color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"> </FONT><FONT lang=0 face="Book Antiqua" color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SERIF" PTSIZE="10"><I><BR>Restoration & Sales of<BR>Steinway & Sons & other fine pianos.<BR>" Soundboards by Design"</I><BR></B></FONT></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">The year's hottest artists on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards. <A title="http://music.aol.com/grammys?NCID=aolcmp00300000002565" href="http://music.aol.com/grammys?NCID=aolcmp00300000002565" target="_blank">AOL Music takes you there.</A></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>