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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