<DIV>Alan Forsyth wrote:<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE cite=mid000001c4ead7$6e738830$9bf7193e@Aspire type="cite"><XMETA content="text/html; " http-equiv="Content-Type"><XMETA name="GENERATOR" content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2523"> <STYLE></STYLE> <DIV><STRONG><FONT size=3>There is good news and there is bad news from this end. I am Down from last year on appointments by 25% but only down by 7.5% financially, which means that profitability is actually UP.</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT size=3>The one challenge we are going to have to address is the onslaught of the digital piano. Traditional piano dealers are selling more of these now than the real thing. I always try and put my customers off buying them by saying that they lose their value very quickly, just like computers because they become outdated (obsolete) within a few years. I also tell them that they will soon become tired of the sound of a digital piano (at least I do) "listener fatigue" and all that. I can only play a digital piano for about half an hour and have to switch it off. </FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT size=3>Have any of you ever analysed the tuning on a digital piano: it's terrible. The temperament is not very smooth at all and even the unisons aren't all that great. However I do suspect that if they were tuned the way we tuners would like them to be tuned, they probably wouldn't sound like pianos at all!</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT size=3>Any other ammunition with which to bombard the onslaught is welcome.</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT size=3>Looking forward to another year.</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT size=3>Burp!</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT size=3></FONT></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="comic sans ms" color=#c00000 size=3><STRONG>Alan,</STRONG></FONT></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#c00000 size=3></FONT></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#c00000 size=3>Another point that has not been addressed as of this writing are the twin issues of reliability and parts availability.  Having retired recently from an institution with a state-of-the-art electronic keyboard lab used to teach class piano, I can tell you what high usage does to even the best of electronic keyboards.  Parts fail, plastic breaks, springs break, even circuit boards crack, which leads to some pretty difficult diagnostic problems.  Since the life span of the first REALLY high-end lab was about 8 years (with problems of the sort described above beginning after less than 5 years), the start-up cost was not an initial cost, but a repeated cost 8 years later, and will be again at about the same interval.  Useful?  Yes.  The lab allows for group instruction in a very sophisticated manner...this could not be done (headphones, ability to communicate together or separately, etc.) with real pianos.  But once the class piano sequence is finished, any student continuing will be taught privately on at minimum a studio grand piano...and even in class piano they are urged to practice in the practice rooms on real pianos, not in the lab.</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#c00000 size=3></FONT></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#c00000 size=3>Merry Christmas....Happy New Year!  Chicago-land is warming up slowly from low temperatures well below zero...and that's Fahrenheit, Alan!!!!</FONT></STRONG></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><BR><DIV>Stan Ryberg <BR>Barrington IL <BR><U>jstan40@sbcglobal.net</U></DIV>