<HTML>In a message dated 9/10/01 2:06:02 PM Central Daylight Time, RNossaman@KSCABLE.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">. It shouldn't cost more to put a decent soundboard and bridges in a cheap piano than in a good one</BLOCKQUOTE> It doesn't. In design, even "cheap" pianos are engineered to have proper down bearing, bridges etc. The problem between the cheap and the expensive ones are that in the manufacturing process, if a problem is discovered with the expensive one, it is sent back through, while with the cheap ones, there isn't the time, nor the money, to do it over again. So the piano is sent out as is. But that is why it is a "cheap" piano. When the piano gets to the dealer, we have the same problem. When a dealer can make $10,000 on a piano, he/she is more willing to pay a technician a couple of hundred dollars to correct any problems. Or if the problem is serious, it will get sent back. (In this case, the manufacturer realizes there is a reputation at stake, and is willing to absorb a certain amount of loss to redo the instrument.) But when the profit margin gets reduced down to $2 - 3000, even if the work needs to be done, there isn't the money available. (And by the same token, the manufacturer is very reluctant to take the piano back.) Again, that is why it is a "cheap" piano. And when customers buy this, they either know there is a problem, or they don't. If they don't, then they get, as Clyde put it, "what they pay for." For a technician to point out the problem, unless you bought the piano from Roger, or someone with his ethics and reputation, the customer is probably going to have to accept what they paid for, even if we point out the problem. What will most likely happen, as Ron pointed out, is that the dealer, or the manufacturer, will send out another technician, who is more "friendly," and point out to the customer that there is nothing "wrong" with the piano. Then the original tuner looses a customer, and he has made the dealer mad. It is not the best thing, but unfortunately, that's the way it is in the real work. Wim</HTML>