Choosing the pianos

[Farrell]

I had an old Starr upright that I bought to learn to tune on (I actually paid money for it  :-(). I practiced and practiced tuning. I would tune it to the SAT several times, and after each time, the pitch would be all over the place. After a few months, I finally gave up on that piano - kinda figured I would never tune a piano - and tried to tune my Steinway. No problem. I put the strings at a certain pitch and they stayed there (well, more or less). I tried other pianos. No problems, they tuned just fine. The problem was the old Starr. It would never stabilize. I fixed the pinblock separation before I even tried to tune it. I could never figure out what the problem with that piano was.

Although since then, I have fixed it. I cut the piano up. Parts of the pinblock and backposts are incorporated into my new overhead drill press jig!    :-)

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Susan Kline" <sckline@attbi.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, April 14, 2002 5:49 PM
Subject: Re: Choosing the pianos


> 
> I did stop tuning one old Starr. The piano is used for teaching several
> days a week, but the treble, aside from terrible false beats, also goes
> out within a day or two, in spite of some work on the bridgepins. The
> tuning pins are okay. I don't know what is wrong with the thing --
> I've even wondered about a separation somewhere.
> 
> I did a lot of useless touchups, since there was no point doing a full
> tuning. Only the one area was out, anyway. Finally I refused to take
> their money for work which wouldn't last. I told them that they could
> have bought another old upright for what they had poured into trying to
> stabilize this one.
> 
> So -- they did something! They traded it in on a decent Everett upright.
> 
> Why didn't I refuse to work on it years ago?
> 
> Susan
> 
> 
> > > > Ah yes and wonderful is the time when in your career you can, because of
> >your ability, experience, knowledge and recognition,
> > > > afford to chose only the pianos you would like to work on.
> > > > David Koelzer
> > >
> > >
>