Hi All,  Although I said I wasn't going to post any of the results from
my Opinion Poll at PlayerCare about 'What People Love about their
Player Pianos', I thought that with the Christmas Season approaching at
breakneck speed I'd post a few of the most prevalent comments I've
received thus far.

In the lead by a margin of five to one over any other reason is 'Good
Memories' of times gone by.  Some of the 'stories' have been really
cute.  The majority are childhood memories of family gatherings where
the adults went one way and the kids played the player piano in another
part of the house.

This leads me to the reason for writing at this time for it outwardly
appears that creating demand might be extremely difficult given the
fast-paced style of living these days.  Rarely do families do things
together like they did 40 years ago.  However, looking back on some of
the comments that were generated during our last round of letters on
the subject, it seems to me that having a working player available for
demonstration (and enticement) may be the only way to generate 'new'
interest.

As one writer put it, "It was our Radio, TV, Computer all in one.  It
was the only entertainment there was after dark, but so novel my sister
& I always looked forward to the time when the grownups played cards in
the kitchen, and we could play the player.  Later I wanted my own."

Creating that or a similar scenario seems hardly likely today with all
the other forms of entertainment readily available to all people.  So
all-in-all, I leaves me thinking that the only thing I can do as a
technician is to make sure that all the units I service, continue to
work well.  It is a bit unfortunate that because of the relatively high
cost of repair, many of my customers don't let the children 'play' with
the unit unattended for fear they might break it.  I do try to dispel
that notion by explaining that they are fairly rugged devices by today's
standards.

Well, I hope this info can help someone.  Look for the rest of the
results in January.

Musically,
John A. Tuttle