Concert hall work

[Bill Ballard]

At 8:39 PM -0600 3/12/04, Barbara Richmond wrote:
>Have any of you worked out an agreement where you can go in somewhat 
>regularly, having however many hours you need to get the rest of the 
>maintenance work done--besides trying to squeeze it in during 
>the preparation for an upcoming event?

No I haven't, but hey, this is what piano techs do best, to strike a 
pose (one arm tucked under the other, with other hand stroking chin) 
and say, "now if I was doing it, this is how I'd do it." And as the 
fabled Stephen Jellen would say, you listen to ten people tell you 
ten different ways, and then you just go ahead and do it the way you 
had planned.

Two separate issues, the first being whether management is willing to 
budget for this kind of maintenance. Let's assume that they are, that 
they have been convinced by the example of the piano's current 
condition and that all they need is some fair way of arriving at the 
real cost of this kind of maintenance. After all, there's not much 
point in doing this kind of work for a venue

The second is how to figure the cost. My plan (if I were doing this) 
would be 1.) an immediate full regulation and voicing to make it the 
best it can be (and I know you can do this beautifully), 2.) a day or 
two before each concert, a two-three hour visit to first, accomplish 
any pitch stabilizations required, second to assess any voicing and 
regulation to bring the piano back up to snuff (say, this winter when 
action fasteners need tightening and the hammer spacing on which the 
U.C. depends needs re-establishing). This assessment would also 
settle the matter of whether that afternoon (prior to the concert) is 
the best time to do the work, or whether it is minor enough to do at 
the time of the actual concert tuning. (Remember, this first 
afternoon, you've already insured that on concert day,the piano is at 
pitch and will submit to a really fine tuning and not misbehave. 
After all, a concert piano should already be in tune when you show up 
to do do the concert tuning.)

Assuming that management is still with you thus far, 1.) is their 
example of how expensive it is to make a real 
"put-this-hall-on-the-national-map" piano out of a 
"says-it's-a-concert-grand-on-the-original-bill'o'sale". Once they've 
been through this, they'll respect the finished qualities of the 
piano, and the skill on your part which got it there. 2.) is their 
education in the small week-to-week increments by which these 
qualities degrade.

Unfortunately, none of this time can be figured in advance. (The D on 
which you heard the piano-4-hands "Rite of Spring" was a 40+ year-old 
taken in trade by the local Stwy dealer, which while waiting to 
resell it, threw in a new set of action parts and rented it to a 
summer music program for several seasons. When it was handed to me, I 
had carte blanche and ran up 23 hours of work. At the end of the 
parade, the artistic director couldn't believe that the owner had 
bought it for $35K.) Just an example of how thorough work can add up. 
But management will understand that your "value-added" work is still 
far cheaper than starting over again with a new piano (assuming 
you've decided that the qualities you want to bring out are inside 
the piano already). Plus, they have already accepted the price of 1.) 
as the real cost of keeping the piano up the way it was done by the 
person you're replacing.

So management should be ready to accept whatever bill you hand them. 
It's the cost of starting the piano out right. It's also your proof 
to them that they picked the right tech. (Given the kinds of people 
you've replaced, that's not hard.)

The regular maintenance visit earlier in the week of each concert is 
another matter, because it essentially doubles (and possibly then 
some) what they thought were their fixed costs ("you've gotta a 
concert, you gotta buy a tuning"). Once again, as 1.) was a lesson in 
how much the ultimate quality costs, 2.) is a lesson in how much it 
costs to keep the piano there once you put it there. 1.) isn't much 
good without 2.)

The cost of 2.) won't be any easier to figure, especially consider 
that, with 1.) your start point (the piano's current condition) is 
known, and for 2.) it's going to be different with each session, 
depending on the time of year, and whether last week it was 
Lollapalooza and this week a blue-ribbon touring piano quartet. But 
what 2.) does is insure that the piano's condition never has to sag 
from 1.), that for each concert, the piano is back in 1.) condition. 
Which is why they called you, right?

So, if they won't buy 2.) outright (but they did buy 1.)), come up 
with some sort of compromise on the cost, anything which will allow 
you to do this. Say, a review of the accumulated hours on 2.) halfway 
through the year, with some extrapolation of what this will look like 
on an annual basis. Alternative ways of compensation: program booklet 
advertising, maybe 40-or-50-or-60¢ on the dollar. But just do the 
work. First of all, to demonstrate that this piano which had been a 
dismal disappointment, could be made into a first class concert piano 
and better yet be kept there. And second, to establish a record of 
the actual hours involved, so that after the first year is up, 
management can go to the artistic director and the board of trustees 
and say, we all agree the piano was spectacular this year (beyond our 
wildest dreams), here's how much it cost, go find the money somewhere.

You can probably already guess that the cost for 2.) is going to 
taper off and stabilize, once you keep after it on this kind of 
basis. I wouldn't go promising something like that at the outset, but 
as soon as the trend becomes clear, management will be very happy and 
relieved at their ROI in you.

You go, gorilla.......!

Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.

"Can you check out this middle C?. It "whangs' - (or twangs?)
     Thanks so much, Ginger"
     ...........Service Request
+++++++++++++++++++++