Poor Technician Workmanship Question (kinda long)

[Joseph Garrett]

Terry,
I assume this is a real case scenario. Under the situation, as you have
documented, I personally would immediately contact the president of this
"tech's" chapter and insist on an immediate investigation. If all, as you
have outlined is found to be true, then there should be a hearing, on the
local level. If that "tech" is found to be guilty of these travisties, then
a judgement should be rendered and the guilty party should be obligated to
pay for correcting the situation. If that "tech" refuses, then charges
should be brought against him on a national level and a trial should be
scheduled. The appropriate committees are the Members Rights Committee and
the Ethics Committee. All this should be done with the greatest speed.
It is my opinion that we (PTG) need to keep our house in good order and
purge any who fit this awful profile. Just reading your post makes my
stomach churn and harkens back to a similar situation in our chapter. That
time the tech refused to be told not to do this anymore and was forced to
resign from PTG. Although he continued to screw up pianos for many years
after, he did not do it with our blessings and spent a lot of time in court.
Good luck in persuing this. If you need any help on this matter, please
contact me directly at: mailto:joegarrett@earthlink.net  or contact the
chairman of my committee: the Ethics Committee
Best regards,
Joe Garrett, RPT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2001 4:13 PM
Subject: Poor Technician Workmanship Question (kinda long)


> If you can't stand pure venting, push delete now. Venting follows:
>
> Tuned/serviced a piano that was new to me. 1890 Kimball 5' 7" grand. Lady
> made appt. and told me enthusiastically that it had recently been
COMPLETELY
> redone inside. The work was done my a local RPT, member of the guild. This
> is the third "completely redone" piano of his I have run across. It was
> consistent with the others I have seen. (One lady called me to inspect his
> work because she feared it was substandard -  concurred with her.) He
> advertises in the Yellow Pages as being an RPT and member of the PTG. I
> charged the lady $245 to tune this Kimball grand..........and fix the keys
> that were not playing.............and fix the dampers that would not quit
> playing, etc., etc.
>
> The first thing, and the thing that buggs me the most, is that this lady
had
> the clear understanding that her piano was COMPLETELY REBUILT. I
> specifically asked her whether the tech gave her a range of options for
> improving her piano, and perhaps she chose to do limited work because of
> financial constraints or just didn't want to spend a bundle on that piano.
> She said no. Her understanding was that there was nothing else to improve
on
> this piano.
>
> Bass strings were replaced with supply-house type strings. Forward and
rear
> windings ended as much as 3/4" off from its corresponding unison. Common
was
> about 3/8" off. Coils were all over the place - loose, and ranged from a
> good 1/4" off plate to jammed into plate with a tight coil. Size-larger
> tuning pins were all different heights.
>
> Hammers were replaced. Shanks sticking out back side of hammer (looked
like
> they were chewed off). No trimming, no surfacing/filing (they had the
cupped
> surface on top), to tapering, no tail shaping. He had to have done the
> boring (or maybe his 6 year-old great-grandson). Hammers were at all
angles.
> Any one hammer was off being straight on several planes (it's hard to even
> describe how crooked they were - strings were not being hit straight on by
> the hammer at all - that is the ones that were being hit). Hammers were so
> mis-aligned many strings were not being struck by respective hammer.
>
> About a dozen notes were not playing because hammer tails were dragging on
> backcheck. Many hammers were blocking against string because they never
went
> through letoff. The end of hammer travel on many notes was terminated not
by
> letoff, but because letoff was like 1/2" below string and the drop
> adjustment went almost up to the string such that the rep lever carried
the
> hammer the rest of the way.
>
> Keys were rebushed (front rail only) and recovered and new felt was on
> keyframe. The keys were about as unlevel and crooked (leaning) and poorly
> spaced as ANY old upright I have ever seen (you know the ones with
> mouse-eaten felts).
>
> About a half dozen dampers were non-functional. He replaced the felt on
them
> with the supply-house set for uprights. Felt at all angles and positions
on
> the damper heads. Wires that looked like pretzels. I have never bent a set
> of damper wires. I was kinda shy about even trying to fix them, but upon
> inspection, they looked like a forest of trees where the wind blows hard
> from one predominant direction. Some of the screws in the back action were
> missing so it appeared he took the straight wire and bent the last 3/8" or
> so a bit and then jammed the crooked wire into the little wooden block to
> hold it there (what is it called??? the little block on the back action
that
> the damper wire goes into). I started by removing the dampers and wires
and
> making them as perfectly straight as I could. I put them back in and
> waaalaa, they worked fine, just like that. One of the dampers that was
> slow - I didn't even want to touch it - appeared to be held in its block
> with chewed gum.
>
> He charged her $2,000. All of the work should be completely redone. Maybe
> the back rail cloth on the action frame would be OK. I could go on. I
think
> you get the picture. I was sooooo happy to find the lady had a wonderful
> sense of humor. At one point she asked me if I was going to shoot it.
>
> Just curious, are we supposed to report a clown like this to somebody at
> PTG? This dude is an embarrassment to all members of PTG.
>
> Terry Farrell
>
>
>