<!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 6.00.2800.1126" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV>Kevin:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This lady sounds like a PRIME candidate for the self tuning piano!  No shoes in the house, no one to ask to use the bathroom!  She bought too early.  She should have waited until the self tuning piano was on the market.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>dave<BR><FONT face=Arial size=2>*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********<BR><BR>On 1/13/2003 at 8:07 PM Kevin E. Ramsey wrote:</FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid"> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>    David, don't go all wobbly on us now, buddy. You just got an overly sensitive "artist" , and by the way, I agree perfectly with Wim's assessment, and I'm sure the piano sounded just wonderful. If they wouldn't let you work with the performer to bring it back to something that would have made them happy, then they're just "nuts", and I wouldn't worry about it too much. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>    I recently got a service order to set up a new Disklavier C2 in North Scottsdale. (Think Beverly Hills). It seems that these people demanded that the piano be delivered in the box. They just didn't want any piano that had been on the floor, and they didn't want to come down to the shop and watch it being uncrated, I guess. So I go up there, it's about an hour drive, and the lady of the house comes out to greet me, from the garage. She asks me if I can take off my shoes in the garage, and I say "of course". She's not oriental, but if she wants me to leave my shoes in the garage, no problem. When I walk into the house, it's all tile. I'm starting to think; "what, I'm going to get her tile dirty?"</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>    I get to the piano, and go to put my tool cases down on the tile, and she says, "You can't put your cases on my floor, I don't know where they've been."  (OOhhh, starting to get scary here, says I. )  I also have a nice table that I use to go over the regulation on, and I guess the rubber casters are not Kosher either. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>    I usually have a cut down moving pad that I carry with me, but today, I'm driving my Tacoma truck, so she finds some construction paper and I put that down. I took the case parts off the piano, and go to put them on the carpet in the sunken lower living room, and she says; "Don't put that there, you'll leave dents in the carpet."  Well, at least I don't have to worry about her coming at me with an ax, she'd get blood everywhere!</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>    So, finally we have it all worked out, I'm going over the action regulation, pitch raising, seating strings, doing software updates, calibrating the disklavier,,,,etc. etc. etc. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>    I finally get all done, I just want to go over the tuning once more, and do a little voicing; it's a lively room, what with all that tile and all those windows, but you know, after an hour drive and 3 1/2 hours of working on her piano, I've got to get rid of some of that coffee that I had on the way to the job. So I ask her, "May I please use a restroom?"  </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>    I can tell you, I've never felt such a sense of shock as when she told me; "No, because then I would have to clean it, there's a construction site about seven or eight lots down, and I think that I saw one of those portable bathrooms down there." So I said, never mind, I'll be done here in a couple of minutes. Finished a quick final tuning and got the heck outta there. I would have been glad to have voiced it, but you know, if you're that rude, too bad. </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>    I realize your experience was totally different, and that you're taking it as a personal affront to your abilities, but from what I've read, you seem to have more than enough confidence</FONT> <FONT face=Arial size=2>and knowledge to succeed in whatever you do. Hey, we deal with people all the time, some people go through a lot of techs mostly because they can't find anyone who can put up with them. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>    I hesitate to put my name to this, but I am</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>    Kevin E. Ramsey</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>    </FONT></DIV><FONT size=2 Arial></BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></BODY></HTML> <PRE> _____________________________ David M. Porritt dporritt@mail.smu.edu Meadows School of the Arts Southern Methodist University Dallas, TX 75275 _____________________________</PRE>