<HTML><HTML>We had a music director/pianist for= a theater where I do a lot of work. As soon as he arrived, strings were bei= ng broke on an average of 2 bass strings/per week. It got to the point that = not only were the older strings breaking, but the new strings as well. The t= heater management was having a fit  because new added costs associated = with numerous string replacements. The piano was used not only for house pro= ductions, but for many of the touring acts as well, so depowering the piano = wasn't a possibility. By the end of his first season almost all the bass strings in the major play= ed keys had been spliced. Eventually we started hanging the broken strings o= n his office wall with corresponding dates and copies of the invoices for th= e work. Became comical after a while. The interesting development was we noticed that the root of his problem was = his hearing. He was practically deaf and  wasn't aware of it. His pound= ing was his way of turning up the volume to please his ears. His contract wa= s not renewed for the following year. Tom Servinsky, RPT</HTML>