Hello everyone, Ron Giesbrecht of Yamaha Canada suggested I share with you my experience regarding scratching the plate on a Yamaha CFIII. I am copying my email and his reply below, just in case anyone is interested. I won't see the piano again until the spring, so don't bother asking me what action I took. I'll let you know in the spring. Regards Terry Beckingham RPT ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi Ron, Can you tell me if there is touch up paint available for Yamaha plates? I tuned a CFIII (sn 4635400) on Saturday. I used the little clamp that Spurlock sells to hold the PRCT on the plate strut. Unknown to me, the rubber cushion on the adjustable screw had fallen off. I put a couple of small smiley faces on the treble side of both struts. The owner isn't really happy about it and asked if I could get some touch up paint for it. (I didn't charge for the tuning). Regards Terry Beckingham RPT Hi Terry, Ouch.... Sounds like this is an experience that needs sharing. I asked Dwight Pile who has the most experience of anyone of my consultants for an opinion, and so I'm attaching his response and more of my comments at the end. By the way he also has a PRCT and fabricated his own holder.... From: Dwight Pile Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 8:08 AM To: Ron Giesbrecht Subject: RE: FW: Plate Touch up Paint Hi Ron. Sad to say that the plate paint is a real problem. I don't have a way of matching the colour in such a way as to eliminate the damage. Even Pride Restoration finds plate finishes like those found on Yamahas to be extremely difficult to repair. Part of this is due to the mild metallic content of the paint, part is the sheen, part is the undercoat, and part is the type of paint used. At best, and with a whole bunch of different golds to work with, I've been able to achieve moderate success only when I've repaired and re-sprayed an entire section of plate. Even then there is a transition line between old and new finish. I don't know where Terry is, but my advice to him would be to get the best autobody painter he can find, beg him to do the repair with an airbrush, and hope that it costs him less than a couple of days of tuning. It would also be an idea for Terry to post his tale far and wide so that others don't share a similar fate. Plate finishes like those found on Yamaha pianos and others are based on a filler coat over the cast iron which by its nature is soft and has some depth. As a result, damage tends to be a bit of a headache. It is not a finish that is intended to have anything stuck or clamped to it-despite what audio engineers believe is their gaffer tape given right! Interestingly, Spurlock's original Ipaq holder was an 'on the tuning pin' type, which is where I got the idea for mine. The clamp version is the 'improved' model. With not much help, but lots of sympathy, Dwight Pile Technical Consultant, Piano Division Yamaha Canada Music 135 Milner Ave Scarborough, ON M1S 3R1 416.298.1311 x 2402 RonG: So as I see it, Terry, you have several options which I've listed below. The first is cheapest and would be acceptable in most situations. The second is not recommended because of cost and risk of failure, and the third is not cheap and probably has the best chance of success. Understanding that minor paint chipping of plate paint during servicing is almost inevitable over the life of any piano (not to suggest careless tool handling is OK), I hope your customer is understanding and allows the first option. (1) Take pictures of the plate paint which are an accurate color match... probably with and without flash. (Or take out one of the plate screws as in (3)). Go to hobby and hardware stores and buy an assortment of small quantities of close matching paints... i.e. like the type for making models. Experiment (before getting back to the customer) with different ways of applying the paint... i.e. multiple thin applications, or several "thick" ones, via brush strokes. If you want to try aerosols definitely experiment in advance and make sure to mask off the area beside (and the rest of the piano) and have good ventilation. One of my consultants (Don Cote in Ottawa) was able to find an off the shelf color that was virtually an exact match at a hardware store a few years back when he had to deal with a similar situation. (2) Ordering touch-up paint from the factory... this is ridiculously expensive because paint is flammable and in a flammable / hazardous products shipping category. Also there is no guarantee of a perfect color match, since the colors may vary slightly from batch to batch of paint mixed (and this particular piano was in the factory in 1988). As well, the spraying process of multiple light coats is important for the final look... and why spraying a complete section of the plate is sometimes necessary. I recall ordering a small quantity of factory touch up paint several years ago which had hardened by the time it got here, so the hundreds of dollars spent in hazardous / flammable products shipping was wasted. (3) Remove one plate screw from the pinblock area (use the right size slot screwdriver because it's easy to slip and put in another scratch ... it's no problem for the plate to handle the removal of one plate screw in this area). Take this to an autobody shop that has the equipment to scan the color of the paint on the head of the screw to accurately match it and ask them to mix up a quantity for you. If you want to price this out first of all, we might be interested in purchasing a quantity from you as we have a similar vintage concert grand here for some technical work. Although there probably would be slight coloring differences between that piano and the one here, it sounds like a closer color match to your customer's piano is more important than ours... and so it would be best to use that plate's color for the sample. You can let me know how you want to pursue this. Good luck! Ron Giesbrecht, Piano Service Manager, YAMAHA CANADA MUSIC LTD. 135 Milner Ave., Scarborough, ON., M1S 3R1 TEL 416-298-1311 ext.2303 FAX 416-298-1262 E-mail: rgiesbrecht@yamaha.ca Web: http://www.yamaha.ca
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