<!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 5.50.4611.1300" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV>I have a number of hotels in SF as clients and have watched the Food & Beverage managers come and go on a regular basis.  Every two years or so they are relocated to another in the chain.  Many years ago, at the F & B manager's request, one high scale establishment bought two matching Disklaviers (with the wagons) for use in the restaurant and lobby.  Several years later one of next directors simply detested "player pianos" and the wagons were relegated holding drinks and eventually stored away in the bowels of the hotel.  Now, some managers later, the new one wants to get one up and running again...problem is no one knows where the wagons are...I told him once they are located I will see what I can do.  That was about a month ago...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>David I.</DIV> <DIV> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR *********** On 4/1/01 at 12:58 PM Billbrpt@AOL.COM wrote:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid">In a message dated 3/31/01 7:36:37 PM Central Daylight Time, diskladame@provide.net (Z! Reinhardt) writes: <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" TYPE="CITE">Do you find that the more money someone has control of, the more tonedeaf they are?  Seems like the fancier the establishment, the worse the piano.</BLOCKQUOTE> You're absolutely right.  All of the big hotels have Yamaha GH1's (they look the same as the more expensive ones and that part about them not staying in tune, who knows the difference when the piano music competes with the water fountain in providing "atmosphere").  The Food & Beverage Manager is always the one who is in charge of maintenance.  That person always sits in an office with no windows and only responds to complaints, not recommendations. Also, here, the most exclusive, expensive downtown businessmen's club has a D. H. Baldwin (Korean made).  When somebody spilled a drink on the lowest 8 bass strings, making them dead as doornails, nobody noticed for months.  Even though the problem was reported when the piano was tuned, they took no action.  Finally, someone did complain about it and an urgent call was placed to "repair" the problem.  When they were told they had *already* been given a quote on how *much* this would cost to fix, they again, took no action.  It's pathetic. Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin</BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>