<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.3354" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>I can imagine all sort of situations where something of this nature would have poor (or worse) results. That being said, a few times I have done this with great results. IMHO, much of our expertise-level work is deciding what is the appropriate maintenance/repair/etc., once a mechanically or arts-and-crafts oriented piano owner is shown how to do a particular task on a couple notes, they can do the remaining 86 notes. Again, one would need to pick the tasks and the piano owner carefully  - and realize everything could still blow up in your face - but the few times I've done this, all has worked out quite well for me and the owner.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>Terry Farrell</FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE 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=jajones2@wisc.edu href="mailto:jajones2@wisc.edu">joel a. jones</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech List</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, August 01, 2008 11:49 AM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Can I do some repair ?</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV>List, <BR><BR>Situation: Recently retired professional. Has plenty of time, and claims to be an amateur wood worker. Sold their house and are moving. Time to fix the piano or..... I give him an estimate for <BR>the repair. As we talked he asked if there were things he could do as this was of interest to him. <BR><BR>Can I do some repair and save some money??????? <BR><BR>Glimpsing his copy of Reblitz I answered I charge XXX an hour if you help. He said GREAT ! Many hours later and twice the amount I quoted he was still saying GREAT ! <BR><BR>1. He found that the regulation, cleaning was time consuming and very refined. <BR><BR>2. He found a new respect for what was involved in the repair of his piano, and the skill<BR>I have developed over the years in my profession. <BR><BR>3. It is now HIS piano and he is proud of his accomplishment. He has a big investment in that <BR>piano, and the education was worth the price to him.<BR><BR>I took a great leap of faith with this customer, and I'm glad I followed my intuiation. <BR>Anybody have this type of experience? <BR><BR><BR><?bigger>Joel Jones, RPT<BR>Madison, WI<?/bigger> </BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>