John,

I have just read your web site and you have done a great job with it. If your piano and organ repair is of equal quality, you must do an outstanding job that is very pleasing to your customers.

I have rebuilt about 30 player pianos and probably about 200 of the old pump organs over the past years before moving to Virginia from South Carolina. I really enjoyed that type work, although my regular job with Celanese required that I relocate here.

How many of the Gulbransen pianos have you rebuilt? They will almost turn someone against the rebuilding profession.

Keep up the good work, both with your rebuilding and your web site.

Arnold Rampey
arampey@swva.net

Hi Arnold,

Thanks for the kind words about the site. I've had a lot of fun building it up page by page.

Gulbransen's... they're ok. I've rebuild seven of them and they are all still working very well but just like any other player, they need to be serviced regularly. And perhaps therein lies the key to my success. I never try to fool anyone into believing that once the unit is restored it will last forever. They all require periodic maintenance and I state that fact before I ever start the job.

One of things I learned (the hard way) early on was that I was raised with an incorrect outlook on life. My Father, whom I love dearly, was plant manager/ head engineer at a large national company. He impressed upon me the need to "keep one eye on the bottom line and the other on the big picture". Then when I was about twenty, an old Japanese woman told me that "man who chase after two rabbits at same time probably loose both". Hmmmm? When I went for my very first job interview (after 9 1/2 years in the Navy, working as an electronics technician) the owner of the piano store told me he had four new players on the floor and none of them worked right. Forty-five minutes later, they were all playing correctly. The only thing wrong with them was a few minor details. That's when I decided that the old woman was right. Keep both eyes on the details and attend to them one at a time. Forget the bottom line, forget the big picture. Have faith in God and the abilities He has given you. Being in this business requires a tremendous amount of faith since there are no guarantees that work will be forthcoming. And yet, the longer I'm in business the longer the waiting list gets. I know now that the old woman was right on the money. Stay focused on the tiny details, one at a time.

So, now you know how I work and think. And the point is that the bottom line and the big picture are often in conflict with each other. Attending to the details follows one very straight, very narrow line.

Musically,
John A. Tuttle

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