Hello Jody,

I have been in the piano business one way or another since 1961, as a
sideline.  I am a visiion teacher with the Knox County Schools System
full time (200 day contract).

I was always mystified by self-players as a young boy.  In 1960, my
mother bought a Symphonique grand (Ampico) as a straight piano.  The
gentleman she bought the piano from was doing player rebuilding, so I
asked if I could "hang around on Saturdays" to learn about players.
Pretty soon I was doing a lot of the rebuilding and learned to tune as
well.

I have been tuning ever since, and have rebuilt several 88-note
players, Ampicos and Duo-Arts and have had a hand in rebuilding a
couple of Weltes, and several nickelodeons.  I own the piano mentioned
above as well as a 1924 Marshall & Wendell William and Mary grand, and
a 1925 Marshall & Wendell vertical.  I also collect 78 rpm records,
radio shows, old movies, and have interests in phonographs and radios.

I plan to retire from the school system in about three years and go
into piano work full time.  I've looked forward to this for a long
time.

Now the article, which is actually a classified I guess.

Tim Johnson
Knoxville, TN

 [ Welcome to MMD, Tim.  The "For Sale" portion of your letter appears
 [ later in this Digest.  Lots of our readers share your interests, so
 [ you're sure to enjoy MMD!  -- Robbie ]