Sounds good to Me.

[J Patrick Draine]

>kam544@flash.net wrote:
>
>>  >...In reality these cases are extreme exceptions,
>>
>>The examples I cited are far from extreme.

Regarding the Keith v. Richard dialogue:
I think what we have here is a difference of national (maybe 
continental) culture, both in the expectations of the technicians and 
in the customer base. My impression for a long time (merely based on 
reading and conversation) has been that the typical European piano 
owner shows more concern for the piano and its maintenance than the 
average US piano owner.
About ten years ago Yamaha showed a film of "a day in the life" of a 
typical Japanese piano technician.  The lady of the house serves him 
tea and lunch, is extremely attentive when the tech recommends a high 
level regulation of the action and agrees to the work, etc.
Yes, some US technicians have a relationship like that with their 
customers. But not as many as we'd like!

We're *used* to harrowing conditions (cf. Richard's outrage at tuning 
amid clangor in a factory, while we reply "yeah well put the earplugs 
in and use that magnetic mic" because we're used to that bad attitude 
and have learned to adapt to it ).
So, guys, you're both right!
Patrick Draine (today I had a nice customer with a small Vose grand 
that hasn't been regulated in 60 years, and a school with an OK S&S B 
... but had to spend an hour looking for somebody with the key to the 
piano lock)