Hello,  I really liked Ed Chaban's comments that he has his collection
for the pure enjoyment it gives him and visitors to his home and that
we are lucky custodians of these instruments.  I've always felt the
same and have never thought of any of them as investments or money
makers.  I recently had my three pianos tuned all in one sitting and
was really happy with the results.  He did a super job and they all
sound wonderful.

One comment I had with regard to the market for player pianos is
that just about every tuner I've had tune my upright player has balked
right away when he's seen the player stack in there.  They always start
grumbling.  Fortunately, in my case I've had the stack in and out dozens 
of times in the last 40 years, so I just tell them I'll remove it to
make the tuning simpler and stop the grumbling.  Mine needed a few
adjustments on the piano action itself so I did need to take out the
stack this time.

The thought I had as I was doing all of that was, "What does the
average player piano owner do nowadays when they need a tuning?"
I doubt that a little old lady who has a player actually knows anything
about what makes it work, and the tuner probably knows the same.  Do
the non-technical owners need to find technicians with knowledge of
player pianos and the willingness to go the extra mile, or are they
just out of luck?

There have been a lot of times over the years when I've needed to make
adjustments or little repairs but I knew how because I've been around
them so long.  To me it seems like a lot of folks would be hesitant
to own one of these complicated instruments without having a reliable
technician nearby or the knowledge to fix those few little things that
come along sometimes.

I'm off to be a musical custodian now for the afternoon!

Greg Coen