Help on dope withdrawal

David Love davidlovepianos@comcast.net
Sun, 9 Oct 2005 09:08:58 -0700


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I was being a bit facetious.  You are generally right; it is the
technician's responsibility to have said no, in this case, explaining =
the
potential downside of such a procedure.  Further, it is the technician's
responsibility to "do no harm", if the requested procedure is clearly =
going
to lead to problems.  Morever, if the technician is unclear about the
application of chemical hardeners, the correct and reversible strengths =
that
should be used on a given hammer, and ploughs ahead anyway, then they =
should
assume responsibility.  There are times, however, when a customer =
insists on
a procedure, a regulation spec, or something else that, explain as we =
might,
they will have done one way or the other.  In this case, you have the =
choice
to either walk away or proceed with the caveat that they will have to =
pay
for the undoing should it not produce what they like.   Recently, I had =
a
customer insist that she wanted deeper key dip with a huge amount of
aftertouch.  As hard as we tried to get to the real issue of what she =
was
trying to accomplish, she insisted.  As predicted, after the change was
made, she didn't like it and wanted it changed back.  She paid me for =
both
changes.

=20

David Love
davidlovepianos@comcast.net=20

Replace the hammers and send the professor the bill. =20

David Love
davidlovepianos@comcast.net
------------
In principle I agree 100 %.

RicB

I don't often disagree with David Love, but I do here. The original =
problem
was that a Yamaha C2 didn't sound large enough for a particular [large]
space. At that point, the technician has two options:

1) If the hammers are, in the technician's opinion, already developing =
full
brightness when played forte, tell the professor that the piano ISN'T =
large
enough, and that doping will cause other problems. Sometimes our =
experience
requires us to say, "No."

2) If the hammers are, in the technician's opinion, on the dark side, =
use
juice appropriate to the situation. In other words, if they are just all
over dark, a weak drop near the tip for added zing, or if they aren't
developing enough buzz at ff, put THE RIGHT AMOUNT in the shoulders.=20

=20

In either case, the doctor doesn't let the patient prescribe; and it is =
up
to the technician to predict the results of his work. It is possible to =
make
quite a difference with dope and still have it reversible, and it is
possible to go part way and check the results with the client before =
doing
something extreme. I suspect the rinsing will do the job and not require
replacement, but in either case, I'd eat the expense.

=20

Bob Davis, RPT

Stockton, CA


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