consultant dilemma epilogue

[Elwood Doss, Jr.]

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Way to go, Wim!  I knew my Technical Examiner could come through with =
flying colors.  My thoughts and prayers have been with you!
Joy!
Elwood

Elwood Doss, Jr.
Piano Technician/Technical Director
Department of Music
106 Fine Arts Building
University of Tennessee at Martin
Martin, TN  38238
731-587-1152
  ----- Original Message -----=20
  From: Wimblees@aol.com=20
  To: caut@ptg.org=20
  Sent: Sunday, February 29, 2004 8:29 PM
  Subject: consultant dilemma epilogue=20


  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.=20

  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.=20

  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.=20

  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).=20

  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.=20

  Wim=20
  Willem Blees, RPT
  Piano Technician
  School of Music
  University of Alabama
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