<HTML><HEAD> <META charset=US-ASCII http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; cha= rset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2600.0" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fffff= f"> <DIV>Let's talk about pianos.</DIV> <DIV>What if we do a little Dr. Phil type exercise to reawaken our tonal min= ds.  For those of you who are European, Dr. Phil is just like Jerry Spr= inger except the people seem much nicer and they come fully dressed.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Let's all think about the one piano that you have seen/heard/tuned that= really knocked your socks off.  The one piano that you wanted to&= nbsp;implant the sound in your head.  The one that you hoped the little= old lady who owned it would leave it to you because you were the only one w= ho really appreciated how truly amazing it was.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Mine was a very old 7ft Ibach, that lived in a dark apartment on t= he upper west side of New York.  It had an elegant case, beautiful= rosewood with finely turned legs and handsome brasses.  It wasn't old = enough to have a Vienna action but old enough to pre date WWII.  <= /DIV> <DIV>The length of decay was just astounding. It had a round, beau= tiful tone that was just there with no sound of the hammer impact.  In = the smallish room it seemed overpowering but had a sweetness to the sound th= at I had never experienced before.  Maybe the fact that it was so diffe= rent from the powerful piano sound that I had been accustomed to had so= mething to do with it.  Maybe it was the unexpected surprise of finding= such a glorious piano hidden away that made it seem so fantastic.= After tuning it I just had to play a bit, embarrassed that the owner w= as probably an accomplished pianist.  I played a little Mozart. Just en= ough to know that it would be the best I would ever sound on a piano. Your t= urn. TP</DIV></BODY></HTML>