Well, I have been truly open minded and have looked at so many solenoid
operated pianos that one would suspect I am exaggerating.  Even made an
offer on one and was turned down and am now thankful.  I made the offer
as if the player had zero value.

I have come to the conclusion the designers are naive and uneducated
as to what is expected by the serious owner of a piano.  Also I am
finding that most newer pianos do not seem to have as good a tone on
a length-by-length comparison of a well-restored piano of the 1900-1930
era.

As a result I have one dogmatic conclusion that the solenoid pianos
have no justifiable purpose.  I'd would truly rather use a CD player
if background music was the goal.  I am just going to have to
reconsider my replacement piano for the two I sold and find something
to restore if I am to own anything worthwhile, or completely do without.

I find it odd that, after looking at so many pianos for so many years,
I knew literally nothing about the new piano industry, the pianos
available, and so forth.  It was frustrating at first to figure it all
out -- why the retail stores had all these purchasing gimmicks, and
so forth.  One place had a deal where you bought a baby grand for $10K
then four years later you got a $5K rebate.

Why be in the piano business, there are far easier ways to cheat people!

Don Winter

 [ I agree, some piano stores have the atmosphere of a mattress store or
 [ a carpet store!  But somebody must like solenoid reproducing pianos,
 [ 'cause PianoDisc and QRS Story & Clark and Yamaha continue to make
 [ them.  Does anybody know what fraction of Yamaha piano sales the
 [ Disklavier represents?  -- Robbie