B3 cache found...

["Mark Longo" <longo@zk3.dec.com>]

        I'm in the process of spending a couple of king's ransoms (at least for 
me) on a new Yamaha C6 Grand Piano (6'11"), which is clearly the most wonderful 
piano in The Whole Wide World.  And any contradictions of this undisputable 
fact 
will be met by me with overt hostility, denial, malicious threats, colorful 
insults on your lineage, etc., etc. ;-)

        Anyway, imagine my surprise when in the course of negotiations, the 
owner 
of this small chain of four organ & piano stores says, "Sure, I play organ, I'm 
the 1st substitute for the Red Sox games!"  I say, "really..."  He goes on, "Oh 
yeah man, I *love* the organ.  Matter of fact, I got five (5) beautiful B3's 
right downstairs I'm selling for $3500 each, and I'm even throwing in a Leslie 
with each sale."  To which I sagely replied, "no shit."  So he takes me 
downstairs to the basement and shows me.

        Now the last time you could walk into a show room and eyeball a bunch 
of 
B's lining the walls was quite a while ago, so I've personally never seen so 
many 
in one room.  It's a VERY awesome sight, I can tellya.  

        They looked to be in decent shape (though not mint) to my untrained eye 
(ie: they don't appear to have seen a road or stage) though some looked better 
than others.  The drawbar feel and firmness of the actions also varied quite a 
bit.  Not all of them had pedal boards and I don't know if he has the benches.  
He claims that they'd all been sitting in people's homes (garages?) for all 
their 
lives, which seemed possible.  They weren't hooked up to amps and since I'm not 
in the market for a B-3 I didn't ask him to set one up.  I pulled on the 
drawbars 
and two of the B's had stamped silver metal ratcheting drawbars while the 3 
others worked more smoothly and had white on black registration digits (they 
also 
had detents for each position, but I've never felt a smooth type B3 drawbar so 
I 
don't know if these would be considered of that type).  I didn't notice if the 
pipe lengths were on the fronts of the drawbars.  Some of the keyboards fely 
limp 
and some felt firmer and much more springy.  He also had an H-100 (?), which 
looked which had a churchy looking case.  I don't think this guy is a B3 
expert, 
but he has more than average knowledge and he impressed me as a pretty smart 
guy.

        I asked him what Leslie's he was "throwing in" for the $3500 deal.  He 
was slightly vague on this point but did show me 3 of them in unscratched 
walnut 
cabinets of the 122 height, by my eye.  If he's throwing in mint 122's that'd 
obviously sweeten things considerably.  He said he would warrant the B's and 
122's but that would cost extra $$ to be negotiated.

        So, in case anyone's interested the owner's name is Ray (sorry I don't 
have his last name with me at the moment, but if anyone want's it, send e-mail 
and I'll check tonight)  His contact info is:

        Raymond (?), owner
        Boston Organ & Piano
        Natick, MA
        (508) 655-1550

        This is a very reputable dealer, has been around a very long time, has 
a 
good piano service business endorsed by Berkeley School of Music, etc.  If 
anyone 
should call Ray, mention my name and this internet list.  He may even deal a 
little, though probably not as he has the idea that this is a very good deal to 
begin with.

        Mark

=======================================================================
  Mark Longo                                    Digital Equipment Corp. 
  longo@zk3.dec.com                             Nashua, NH
  87 8300 020