Piano Bash editorial

[Elwood Doss, Jr.]

Thanks Wim, I didn't know what the Baldwin people bashed.  Nice to have that cleared up.
Elwood

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Wimblees@AOL.COM>
To: <Pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 04, 2002 11:20 AM
Subject: Piano Bash editorial


> 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 
>