<HTML>In a message dated 3/22/0= 3 7:44:23 AM Pacific Standard Time, Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-= LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">> I am curious about oth= ers opinions on the long term future of the piano business.  Piano deal= ers are going under right and left.  Used pianos are at historic lows a= nd even then do not sell.  There will always be tuning and rebuilding b= usiness since there are still millions of pianos out there.  But do you= feel about the long term growth of our field. Lets put it this way.... dont encourage your son to become a piano tech = unless he's either into a very bohemian life style, or intends on becoming o= ne of the few true all around artisians in our buisness I predict that within 30 years there will be only 4 or 5 manufactures ma= king only very expensive instruments for an increasingly nostalgic rational = and for the few music lovers left who insist on acoustic music. Everyone els= e will have keyboards of some sort or another. These will just plain become = too competetive for the low end acoustic side of our industry to survive. </BLOCKQUOTE> I see the demand for pianos being pretty steady in the SF Bay area, and = I don't see an end to it despite roughly 20% unemployment around here. &nbsp= ;But the prices are going up, and quality going down.  Dealers can't af= ford(or won't afford) proper prep, and people wonder why their pianos won't = stay in tune and feel funny. There are new Chinese factories cranking out hundreds of thousands of pi= anos a year.  I see a future in our business.  Maybe it isn't the = future that you or I would consider ideal, but there will always be pianos. =  Many of the best pianos will languish as baubles in 2,000 square foot = living rooms. Years ago, many people predicted that various other keyboard instruments= (organs, synths, digitals) would push the piano out of existence except as a= curiousity.  It will outlive all of those things.   Dave Stahl</HTML>