informal survey

[Roger Jolly]

 I'm interested in your opinions and ideas as regards
>the "critique" of rebuilt pianos. 

Gee Guy,
        Want a quick answer? But a good bunch of questions.
>	For example:
>
>	What do you notice first?
  General tidiness of workmanship,  every thing should line up like toy
sodiers.
>	What do you actually "look" for?
  Besides tone quality and evenness of tuning quality. The general
regulation quality. Special attention to blow distance, key height, ( Does
the front of the naturals form a reasonable square with the top of the key
slip, on a unit with no published data?)
  Was the the key top nicely milled to compensate for the difference, Ivory
to plastic?
  Sharps burying, and uneven back check alignment, is a common indicator of
overall quality.
>	What's the most important?
  Clean neat workmanship, that looks as if it was a factory job.
>	What would you LIKE to see?
  Same as above.
>	What would you like "standardized"?
  Same as above.
>	Do you want a reference, inside the piano, to know who's responsible,
>                                                            with a contact
>phone #, or something like that?
  I always write a good deal of the rebuild data, and regulation
perameters, with the date of mfg, and rebuilding on the bottom two keys.
With my signature, a personal pride thing.
>	What ticks you off the most?
  Sloppy detailing. Damper guides not rebushed, trap work not rebushed.
Restringing with out replacing dampers, invariably I find the damper wires
are bent all over the place to stop bleed, and even then not too sucessfully
>	What makes you drool?
  Neat clean work, it goes hand in glove with competance.
>	What do you wish you could do? Or afford to do on your next rebuild?
  I will not start a major rebuild unless I have a free hand to do a
complete job.
>	Do you ever"pre-judge" a rebuilt piano based on the brand or rebuilder
>                                    or some other factor?
  Try hard not to. Far to often the rebuild has been customer driven re.
price,
All to frequently the tech needs the job and gets forced to compromised
into doing less than the recommended work. Have been there, done that, and
bought the Tee Shirt. Fortunately I'm booked 8 months ahead on shop work,
and I only take the jobs that interest me. However I still rebuild some
very border line units that are family treasures! the customer is made very
aware that the unit will not become a premium unit. Typically this type of
unit is a vertical with several ugly splits in the board, and marginal
crown. Suprising how many people still waant you to go ahead.

 Guy I think you may have opened a can of worms with this one.

Happy New Year to All
Roger

>
>Guy Nichols, RPT, corner of cactus-and-rock in the cold stinkin' desert
>
>
Roger Jolly
University of Saskatchewan
Dept. of Music.