<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; = charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4915.500" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>    The one that comes = most to my mind when I think along these lines is the little Aeolian upright I had = to tune about three weeks ago. The plate was about 3mm behind the strings in the = top of the treble section. There is no way in heck to get a muting strip to = stay on those strings. Try it, and the first semi-hard blow pops 'em out. Not = enough clearance for a rubber mute either. Luckily, I had my Paps mute right = there, but without it, it's like "What? You don't want me to tune it?"</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>    It's about that time = that I came up with my infamous quote about "There's a reason you don't see these = guys hanging around anywhere anymore."</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV>Kevin E. Ramsey<BR><A href="mailto:ramsey@extremezone.com">ramsey@extremezone.com</A></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; = BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">> >Why would anyone design a beast like that?  = </BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>