<HTML><HEAD> <META charset=US-ASCII http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; cha= rset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1400" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fffff= f"> <DIV>Were the pianos in question bought from Doremi?<BR>Andrew</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff>Andrew,   No, I've never heard = of that specific company.  I meant to comment on grays in general that = I have seen in the Chicago area.</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff>Michael</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>At 09:44 PM 9/28/2004 -0400, you wrote:<BR></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE class=cite cite="" type="cite"><B>The gray market pianos s= hould be treated with caution.  I've seen some with new pinblocks, that= weren't too bad. I've seen some that were mostly original, 35 years old and= may have come out of a school where they were played to death. The pinblock= s were very iffy on  some of these. Also, they showed up with no hammer= filing (that was badly needed), and sold by dealers that don't offer such '= advanced' service. Further, Yamaha is on the warpath against these and you c= an't get beans from them without a serial #, and they check every time. I'm = not saying they're wrong, that's just the way they're doing this. I don't th= ink the grays are that good of a deal anyway, half the price and almost tota= lly used up.</B><BR> <BR><B>Michael </B><BR><B>Chicago</B></BLOCKQUOTE>= </BODY></HTML>