Victor console

[Richard Brekne]

My advice is to build your buisness and look forward to the day when you can
walk away from such jobs. I know opinions vary on such "pianos" and what to or
not to do with them. I am of the opinion that continued service of such, just
means continued manufacture of them, and continued unwitting purchase. Really
folks.. we need to draw the line somewhere... or what ?

Richard Brekne
I.C.P.T.G.  N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway

Stephen Powell wrote:

> Hello List
>
> Would appreciate comments on the following situation that I found myself in
> yesterday:  New client with about a 6 yr old Victor (Korean or Indonesian,
> I'm not sure) that she has owned for 4 yrs and not had tuned.  Piano was
> bought from a dealer who is no longer in business.  This horrible little
> piano was about 15 cents flat.  Tone and overall quality of the instrument
> leaves a lot to be desired.  Anyway, I soon discovered that the pins were so
> tight that I could barely turn them and so pin flex was extreme.  After
> attempting to tune for about 10 minutes, I decided that I had two options:
>     1. Wrestle with the piano for several hours and walk away feeling
> uncomfortable with the quality of the tuning and the likely stability, with
> a sore arm!;
>     2. Tidy up some of the unisons so the piano would sound a little better,
> take care of some misc. problems, and advise the client to trade the piano
> in for a better one.
>
> I chose option 2.  The client was disappointed to here about the problems
> with the piano, but seemed to value my advise, and is looking at trading it
> in.  Thankfully she wasn't too keen on the look of the piano in this huge
> house (pots of money!)
>
> Q. Do you think I did the right thing or should I have worked harder to
> improve the PSO?  What if the piano had belonged to less affluent owners?
> Q. Why are these  Asian (not Japanese) pianos coming out with such tight
> tuning pins?  I just don't think the pins need to be nearly that tight.  Is
> there an easy fix for over tight pins?  Thoughts?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Stephen Powell RPT
> Auckland, NZ
>
> P.S.  Owners dog jumped all over me when she opened the front door.  I
> really hate that.  Later damn dog grabbed something from my case and ran and
> hid under a bed!  They wrestled a packet of voicing needles out of it's
> mouth.  I was wishing it would swallow them and leave me alone!! (I like
> animals really!).