Andy Taylor said: "The ironic thing, though: there is an old 1915
Armstrong upright piano in the back which they don't even use, and
it sounds far better than this $14000.00 grand piano!"

How true!  This is so typical of churches and public places.

Not too long ago, our local school tossed out a 1920 Steinway "O"
because it was old and looked scruffy.  (I rescued it just before
a rain storm, as it sat outside ready for trash collection.)  With
a little work, it turned out to be the best piano I ever owned!

This fine piano was replaced with a nice-looking, brand new *piece of
junk!*  It sounds terrible.  The hammers were so poorly adjusted they
hit the wrong strings.  Each time it was tuned about ten strings would
break, and it was discovered that all the strings were the same gauge
wire!

At the time I had a contract to tune the school pianos.  I had no
choice but to tell the school that I refused to maintain it, and
they better seek service where they purchased the piano.

Why is it, the majority of society equates "shiny and new" to that
of "quality", and have such little respect for the past when we had
an era of conscientious workers who were proud of their work?

Bruce Clark