lost motion topic

[Brian Lawson]

Hi, I had an upright piano today, which assuming the previous tuner did the
"repair" and the tuning, well his tuning needed the minimal done to it but
the repair job was far from satisfactory. Instead of removing a hammer and
seeing a broken butt spring, a quarter of a keylead had been stuck onto the
balance hammer, so it would return! Taking the Harveyism (that's the
original Sheamus) to "undo what the previous tech did wrong" I replaced the
missing butt sping, there was then other hammer spacing to do but as this
was done in under my normal tuning time I didn't charge.

I was also in a good mood. That sometimes affects my generousity.




Brian Lawson
IC PTG, MPT






> Jay
> Yes, to get a customer to recognise the value of their piano enough to pay
> for some basic maintenance is always a problem. One option is to show the
> customer the problem, then make a few adjustments to let them see the
> difference, before wasting time launching into it if it won't be noticed /
> appreciated.
> This approach often works for me as long as we're talking small relatively
> inexpensive remedies. (In this situation anyway)
>
> Regarding lost motion, shimming rails does a quick job with some
> consequences ie, keydip etc. I find, depending on the piano, that it is a
> fairly quick job to check the blow distance, pack the hammer rest rail as
> required, then adjust the capstans checking the keyboard regulation isn't
> going to be upset.
> This procedure usually takes about 30 minutes if the capstans are easy to
> regulate, and the difference is usually very noticable to the pianists.
> Aftertouch even returns!
>
> I've encountered on several occasions clients actually wanting action
> problems fixed and the tuning was secondary, yet they booked a tuning.
> Sometimes it is possible to spend less time on the tuning and some time on
> regulation. One tech friend of mine books a 2 hour appointment and always
> has time left after the tuning to do some other necessary work without
> feeling rushed, so the pianos he works on are improved over a period of
time
> without the customer realising they are actually paying for it anyway. I
> tend to treat these jobs as an add on to a tuning, ie, where I can often
> spend an extra hour there and charge accordingly. It doesn't always work
> though.
>
> Graeme Harvey
> New Plymouth NZ