consultant dilemma epilogue

[Wimblees@aol.com]

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I want to give an update on the consultant issue I posed a couple of months 
ago, and tell you that the issue has more or less resolved itself. 

If you recall, the chairman of the music department, with the backing of some 
of the piano faculty, was going to get a consultant in to look at the main 
concert Steinway D, because it was "dead." Since then, I have, without anyone 
knowing it, lacquered the hammers, voiced it, and given it real good regulation. 
I also made sure the touch weight was very even, (down in the 45 - 48 gram 
range and up in the 23 - 26 gram range.)

I kept asking permission to do this work, but the chair and one of the 
faculty members was reluctant to have me do this, for no other reason than they 
wanted to show the consulted how bad the piano was. I kept saying, "allow me to 
show you what I can do, and then if you still don't like it, get the consultant 
in here." Also, the chair was adamant to get a private consultant in here, 
while the piano faculty was leaning towards getting someone from Steinway here. 

Well, finally on Friday, the issue was resolved in a very amicable way. Franz 
Mohr was in Birmingham for a book signing and to give a lecture at a symphony 
concert. The owner of the Steinway piano store, for whom I do some work and 
has been aware of the situation, asked me if Franz could come over and look at 
the piano. I said yes, that would be great. When he got here, I got the chair 
and the piano faculty to hear Franz say that basically the piano was in great 
shape, that the regulation was very good, but that about 2 dozen hammers 
needed to be voiced up, and that all the piano needed was about a days worth of 
work to finish it off. He even got out his own juice and took care of about 6 
hammers. 

It was nice to have him come and give the piano his blessing. Yesterday and 
this morning I worked for about 4 hours on the piano and this afternoon the 
piano was played for a voice recital. The piano player loved it, as did the piano 
faculty members and the chair who came to listen. (I never told anyone about 
the work I had done earlier. I'll just leave that for myself. Having Franz 
tell me the piano was in great shape is enough patting on the back). 

Thanks to all of you who gave advice. It helped me get over some of the 
feelings I had, and helped me deal with this situation. As I said, it all worked 
out, and we now have a fantastic instrument for our concert hall. 

Wim 
Willem Blees, RPT
Piano Technician
School of Music
University of Alabama

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