<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</HTML>