<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> Somehow the existence of the Haynes Piano Manual had escaped me. I ordered a copy from Amazon, and I am very impressed with it! <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.haynes.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&productId=49251&langId=-1">http://www.haynes.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&productId=49251&langId=-1</a> Haynes are publishers well-known in the UK for car owners' manuals for every make and model of car. In more recent times they have diversified into household appliance manuals. This is an interesting publishing approach for a piano book. As we know, technical books about the piano, like Reblitz, are a 'niche market'. Because the volume of sales is low, there is no economy of scale, which means that colour is an impossibility within an affordable price range. Haynes Manuals, on the other hand, are aimed at a mass market, which means high sales volume and therefore economy of scale.  The Piano Manual is ostensibly written for all piano owners. But it is much more than a basic guide to pianos.  It is very well laid out, typical of the Haynes Manuals, and copiously illustrated with colour photos throughout.  There is a great deal of repair information etc, and the colour is a great boon, as everything is so much clearer and easier to make out, in colour photos of piano action parts. There is a lot here that the average owner will never wish to attempt. But that's OK, and is typical of this genre: when I used to buy the Manuals for whatever car I owned, it was not with the intention of removing the engine and stripping the gearbox.  But just finding out how to remove a bit of trim so as to access some part, made the books worthwhile. The focus is on UK pianos and no other work before this has covered this ground for UK pianos. This is a laudable and largely very successful effort.  In the guise of a mass-market book fort all piano owners, we have a full-colour repair manual that would be useful to any piano technology student. We know that as techs we don't always agree on methods, and there are some ideas and opinions I don't necessarily agree with. But it's an extremely worthwhile addition to the literature. Best regards, David. <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.davidboyce.co.uk">www.davidboyce.co.uk</a> </body> </html>