Susan Robinson wrote in 050708 MMDigest:

> Hello all,  Have been following the thread for a while now.  Thought
> I would share a personal experience.  As a teenager I was fortunate
> enough to work in a store that sold music boxes exclusively.  Until
> I worked there I had no appreciation for them.  But once I was around
> them and could really listen, I fell in love.

I suspect I've told this one before on MMD (if so, spike it, Robbie)
but Benet Meakin was a crazed player collector in England who also did
organ restorations for churches (I once counted 208 pianos in his main
building!).  Some time around 1972 he took a monkey organ to a church
fete to help raise funds for an organ he was doing for them.

A thin and listless lad showed an interest, so Benet took him back
to his treasure house to look at more.  The lad showed an aptitude for
doing detail restoration work, so Benet persuaded him (and I suspect
even supplied some of the funding) to attend a piano tech's course at
the Central School in London.  He said to me that this boy's family
were complete know-nothing couch potatoes, with no interest in anything,
and he felt he was in a way saving the lad from going the same way.

Later the boy graduated as a piano tech and became well-known as a very
good tuner in Sussex (south of London) with his own workshop.  On one
occasion I was asked to look at an 1890 Bechstein concert grand in a
chapel, got to hear he'd seen it earlier and phoned him.  He said,
"It's not totally dead but you won't get it nearer to A440 than three
semitones low."  This proved to be absolutely correct.

He is Paul Hardingham who is now one of the UK's top harpsichord makers.
I feel inspired every time I remember how he started.  Who can we give
a kick start?

Dan Wilson, London