Dear list: Thought I'd share this appt I had today: Lady with an old Jesse French ex-player upright-piece of junk in a REAL nice home right on the bay here in Niceville, seems she saw this guy at the air force base getting ready to dump it (which they should have) so she got some friends (I think) to move it to her home, which she promptly re-finished herself (ugh) and then paid some "technician" from Crestview approx 400.00 to get in playing cond. Now, here are people with apparent means to purchase a decent piano but she saw a "bargain" and saved a "bunch". This "technician" ( I really can't call this person a technician, more like a gypsy) apparently told her he would make it "good as new" and sold her on the job. She said this guy looked like he lived in his car and he told her he had 8 kids to feed and so-forth and she felt sorry for him so she gave him the task. The first thing I noticed was that the keys were not level at all and when I pulled a couple out to check the "leveling job" I found-would you believe-FAUCET WASHERS where there should be balance rail punchings. I kid you not! At first I thought, maybe that's all he had in a pinch but no, EVERY KEY had one underneath, no paper punchings. I didn't know what to do-I was beside myself. Well, when showed this to her as well as all the other "re-conditioning" which had been (NOT) done, she said "Well, he did this about three years ago and I felt sorry for him and I suspected that he didn't know what he was doing but I didn't have the heart to stop him. How much will it cost to fix it now?" I told her to save some money and get another piano-tuned it as best as I could & left. Folks, is there no educating people about pianos or do they just want to get burned or what? The faucet washers is about the worst "rig" job I have seen and I have seen plenty. Oh, well. I still made money, I guess... Greg Torres, Technician Niceville, Fl Tunapiana@aol.com P.S. Sorry if this was a little long-still cant believe it-I guess if she ever dumps the piano she could take the washers out and save them so she can fix her own plumbing.
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