<HTML>As a technician I feel and understand what is being said about junk pianos.  Nevertheless, I started taking lessons (upon my own request) on an old cut-down vertical, you know, the kind with the mirror at the top for choral directors.  It was bad, not everthing worked and I really can't remeber if we tuned it ( I was 10 at the time), but I finished two years of lessons on that thing and because i was enhusiatic about playing and practicing, I progressed rather rapidly.  I loved it.  Now when my parents bought a new Yamaha P-116 I realized my own provincialism, if you will.       So, I think it is possible that technicians can be a little tyranical and a little ignorant of the persepective their customers.  Its not only tyranny, though, its also that these pianos are just a pain in the neck to work on!                                                                               Jim Rickson </BLOCKQUOTE> While I somewhat agree with the point that a child should be given the best possible piano to learn on, I know for a fact that it often won't make any difference.  I know of numerous instances where virtuoso performers first learned on what some on this List would readily condemn as "junk" and that fine instruments often go unused, serving more as items of decor than anything else. I know of a young man from a suburb about 20 miles away who received a full scholarship to Julliard.  His parents were good, honest and hard working but neverthe less, poor.  He had learned on a piano where strings and parts were broken.  He just continued to play on what was left and imagined the sound that was supposed to be there. Then there is the lady who today goes around to nursing homes and entertains the residents on whatever "junk" is there in whatever state it is in.  It doesn't matter to her.  As a child, she grew up in a very poor family who could not afford a piano.  She used to imagine that her mother's stove was a piano and learned to "play" on it.  Don't ask me how that is possible but it is a true story. After all, Beethoven wrote his greatest music after he was totally deaf and from what I've read, on a broken, dysfunctional piano.  I always view laments about "junk" pianos with much skepticism.  It usually means that the person is afraid of a little challenging work. Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin <A HREF="http://www.billbremmer.com/">Click here: -=w w w . b i l l b r e m m e r . c o m =-</A> </HTML>