Piano Bash editorial

[Wimblees@AOL.COM]

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This post is in response to the letter to the editor by David Hughes, RPT, 
from Baltimore. He felt the destruction of the Baldwin electric piano at the 
convention was in bad taste. While I respect David's comments, I wonder if 
perhaps we take ourselves way too serious some time. What was being destroyed 
was an obsolete instrument that had seen better days. The parts to the 
instruments are no longer available, and thus, what was being destroyed was 
not a musical instrument, but a "thing" on three legs. 

Yes, we should all strive to do out best to make pianos play to the best of 
their ability. But we should not loose track of the fact that pianos are 
inanimate objects, without feelings, and with a limited life expectancy.  I 
realize there are people out there who "fall in love" with their pianos, and 
that preserving a 125 year piano that belonged to their grand father, (much 
less a 20 year old electronic piano that has out lived it's usefulness), is 
worth the thousands of dollars needed to repair it. But we as piano 
technicians should have the fortitude, and the knowledge, to realize when a 
piano has outlived it's usefulness. We should not get caught up in the 
sentimental bovine extract that some of our customers want us to believe that 
their instrument is worth much more than the money they want to spend to fix 
it. We should be able to tell our customers that the best thing to do with 
their beloved instrument is to donate it to the local landfill, or allow it 
to be used at the annual carnival to be used as a battering ram, or in a 
demolition derby. 

David, with all due respect, what happened at the convention was good clean 
fun. The object of our destructiveness was nothing more than a piece of wood, 
metal, and plastic that resembled the shape of a piano. Nothing more. Nothing 
less. Not to make fun of your opinion, but my only comment to you, and it 
comes with great admiration for your feelings, is to lighten up. 

Just my thoughts

Wim 

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