Had an interesting professional challenge today. I was called on to evaluate a piano someone was thinking about buying. Though I'm always evaluating them in my mind as I work on them (usually "man, this piano sounds terible"), it's a bit different when I'm being paid for my opinion.

It turned out quite well. I brought along my Piano Atlas to check the manufacturing date, but decided to guess the age before looking in the book. I was pretty proud (though admittedly lucky) to have successfully guessed the exact year. My customer was impressed though. The evaluation turned out to be a no-brainer. The piano needed only a couple of minor repairs and was in great shape otherwise. The asking price was just $300, so there wasn't much to it. Plus now I'll have a tuning customer who's under the impresion that I know what I'm talking about.