Painted String Rendering

[Farrell]

Comments below:

----- Original Message -----
From: <Tvak@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 8:44 AM
Subject: Re: Painted String Rendering


>
> In a message dated 1/18/02 7:15:56 AM, mjbkspal@execpc.com writes:
>
> << Good luck selling the restringing job! >>
>
> Terry,
>
> I'm nobody, I know less than 90% of the folks on this list, including you,
> Terry, but I feel obligated to speak up on this thread.

Everybody is somebody, and I'm glad you chose to speak up!

> Am I the only one who finds the concept that just because a piano is
> difficult to tune, this is reason enough to encourage the owner of the
piano
> to pay hundreds of dollars to restring it?

No, you are not the only one, and that is not the only reason this person
might want to consider restringing. This lady is a teacher. She has many
students and teaching piano is her sole income (or there abouts - its what
she does for a living - she is single). She plays Rachmananof (sp?) VERY
well (at least it sounds good to me). She complained about a few notes that
were way out that bothered her. All her bass tuning pins are loose - on the
verge of not holding a tune. Several tenor pins are loose. I have CAed some
of them in the past. Any hey, this piano is 60 years old and the strings are
rusty and she has an appreciation of the performance piano! She complains
about her una-corda not working right (she needs her hammers filed), and her
action is less than satisfactory. Clearly this woman is looking for better
performance. I think in this case talking about restringing is very much
on-target and is a service to her.

In the case of a lesser piano with a lesser pianist where the owner is not
complaining, I would agree completely with you. Just tune it the best you
can - end of story.

> Time is money.  It took three hours to tune?  Charge her more for the
extra
> effort,

Like I said in the post - for me, tuning for her is an event! The piano is
quite a challenge, we chat quite a bit, we search for buzzes, she plays for
me, we talk about pianos and teaching and careers and children, etc., etc.
She asked me to tune it, and that is all I did, the rest of it was fun that
I chose to engage in. I don't charge for that.

> but if the piano sounds good, how can you justify restringing?

See above.

> I know you didn't like the idea of flagpoling pins, but I would encourage
you
> to try it on this piano and see if it doesn't help.  You mention that you
> turn the pin, and turn the pin, and then suddenly your 20 cents sharp.
Try
> turning the pin just the normal amount, and then with your tuning lever
> parallel to the string, handle away from you, lift up on the handle.  I'll
> bet the string will slide right through that agraffe.  With practice you
can
> get the string to come out just a little on the sharp side, and you can
relax
> the pin back down to pitch.  I use this technique on pianos that don't
render
> well and I find it easier to zone in on the correct pitch than turning,
> turning, turning.

Interesting idea. Sounds like it might have potential - certainly worth a
try. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a whirl.

> Tom Sivak