<HTML>In a message dated 6/23/02 2:18:00 PM Central Daylight Time,       mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com (Farrell) writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">See. There we had it. Two techs having a conversation about one that will work on anything, one that chooses to not work on old clunkers, pianos that are nice, and pianos that are poor quality and/or worn out. Nobody bashed each other, nobody verbally trashed any pianos, nobody accused anyone of attacking them because of their views/practices, etc. I'm happy, he is happy. All is cool. What's that other dude's deal?</BLOCKQUOTE> Really, Terry, I don't think there was anything "nasty", as you put it, about my post.  Only a few days ago, someone was claiming that an Acrosonic "couldn't be tuned".  I have seen this kind of thing from the time I first participated on this list 5 years ago and frequently ever since. What I have seen is that there are those who like to elevate themselves by using such language as "PSO", implying that it is beneath one's dignity to work on such a thing.  What do you suppose this makes people who earn their living working on common, ordinary piano feel like?  What I see is those kinds of technicians quickly get the idea that it is somehow "cool" to have that kind of attitude. Many, many times I have seen people write or heard say in conversation that they purposefully will not render common services to common pianos.  "I refer *that* to my competition".  (Said with an obviously arrogant tone).  If you are a university tech or someone who has been around for a very long time and have the kind of clientele which puts you in the position of being able and even necessary to discriminate that way, that's good but to give others the feeling that you are "casting your crumbs" to them is not a good idea.  I prefer to call the piano by it's rightful name, Spinet, Console, Baby Grand, etc. Tuning, regulation, voicing and repairs on lesser instruments is always good practice and experience for a technician who is still learning the trade.  The skills developed on these will readily apply when the time comes to work on a really fine piano.  I have my place where I draw the line too but I make up my own mind about that and don't listen to what those who gripe about what they consider to be beneath their dignity.  Very often, I have seen that those who behave this way are really only putting up a false posture.  They've held out so long for the good pianos to work on that the knowledge and skill necessary to work on them just isn't there. The couple who had this Acrosonic I worked on Friday, I've known for nearly 25 years.  The wife recently acquired the piano from her mother who had passed away.  The piano had sat neglected for many years and was in unplayable condition.  But this was *her* piano!  She wasn't going to put it out to be hauled away, she wasn't going to go out and buy another one.  But she was made to feel very bad by some of the things that a couple of other tuners said to her about it. Knowing who these people were, I can say that it was not a case of them having too much other work on fine pianos to do.  It was really a case of them not knowing how to take apart and put back together the spinet piano with the colossal fallboard.  Instead of admitting their shortcomings, they tried to elevate themselves by making the woman feel stupid for having that piece of junk.  I simply went in and did what a piano technician is supposed to do. If I had been too busy to handle it, I would have tried to find someone who could for her, not make her feel bad for owning a "PSO".  If I am ever in the position of not being able to service low end pianos, I will still enjoy helping younger techs learn how to do so. I went to Tyler Smith's yesterday to help him get started.  He had bought a used Samick console.  It was essentially unplayable as I came upon it yet had been "prepared" or "serviced" by the dealer technician.  I used and taught Tyler only the most basic of skills but we turned a useless piano into a musical instrument in about 2 1/2 hours.  It can be further improved but Tyler picked up quickly on how a few basic skills, aptly applied took the piano from being a real mess to one which functioned normally. Tyler remarked at how easy the EBVT sequence seemed to be to learn as compared to ET.  I had him try to tune his very first unisons using the hammer technique I had learned from Jim Coleman in 1979.  Tyler said that from the study of physics that he had done, it seemed to him that an impact type technique is the most appropriate.  Maybe he can tell us what he knows about this. 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>