Hi Fred, and all, I pretty much do your approach. I identify certain pianos that have the most problems during the school year. I put sign-up-sheets on each practice room door to let me know during the year where a key sticks, a broken string, something fell into the piano, a buzz, etc. and compile them all at the end of the year. It's very easy to see from these sheets which pianos have more problems Of course, I take care of the problems right away to make them practiceable (is that a word?) The ones with lots of broken strings, (mostly in the capo section) give me a clue that some re-stringing and capo re-shaping need addressing. Then, since I can never do much more than just tune the concert instruments during the year, I take a full few days each to really get into them and make them shine again. For instance, Im installing new hammers on the Steinway concert grand in the smallest venue which is used constantly and never can get in there for more than an hour or two. These hammers were 18 years old and far beyond any life-giving voicing techniques I could give. Now, I have 3 weeks to do the project. Actually more than I need, but then....I get to practice on it when I'm finished and really break in the new hammers! I'm loving it! Then a 1922 M&H model A which totally needs mass work that is already in the shop. If you plan ahead for the big stuff, then you're ready to begin as soon as all the last spring concerts and recitals have finished. I'm only waiting for bass strings for the M&H. Everything else is ready to go, so I've already begun the tearing down processes. Faculty pianos and practice rooms wait until about 3 weeks until fall semester begins, and I wisk through them with focused intensity for tuning, keeping notes for future projects. I save the piano faculty pianos for last...the week before classes start. When classes begin, I re-visit the concert instruments to get them ready for recitals. During the school year, I have no problem taking one practice grand out of service at a time to do some rebuilding. I try to do one per semester. Of course, I still take a couple of grands out of service during this time to re-bush keys or something else simple enough to only take them out of service for a few days.... Paul Fred Sturm <fssturm at unm.edu> Sent by: caut-bounces at ptg.org 05/15/2009 01:29 PM Please respond to caut at ptg.org To caut at ptg.org cc Subject Re: [CAUT] summer procedures On May 14, 2009, at 4:57 PM, G Cousins wrote: Any others wish to add to the data? Hi Gary, I have a different approach. Summers I do a couple large projects (replace action parts, restring, what have you), and then go through a number of pianos in a pretty thorough way. I decide on priorities (which pianos) during the year, cycling to make sure I get to everything eventually. The concert grands are always on the list, as well as piano faculty studios and at least half of piano major practice rooms and large classrooms. Others cycle in depending on condition and priority. I have a pretty defined procedure that goes through the action from bottom to top, making sure everything is clean, lubed, tight, well-aligned, moving straight, etc. Then I go through regulation and voicing to the extent I have time. Over the years, the general level of quality has risen, so the starting point and ending point is higher. I plan on a day or two per piano, depending. I'll be going through those procedures in my class at Grand Rapids, which will include things I have written about in Journal articles as well as other things. All with an eye to longevity of results, and efficiency of processes. And ending up with pianos that I can actually enjoy playing <G>. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico fssturm at unm.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20090515/1f7c82f3/attachment.htm>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC