Repair and Tuning of Estey Baby Grand

[Conrad Hoffsommer]

At 06:40 AM 9/26/2005 -0700, you wrote:

>Simply advise them that there are several reasons why a key may not 
>work.  Some are simple and quickly remedied, some are more 
>involved.  Until you can assess the situation you won't be able to give 
>them (or yourself) a definite course of action.
>
>
>David Love
>davidlovepianos@comcast.net


Yup!

There are very few piano maladies which can be correctly diagnosed over the 
phone. You may be given clues by the customer's description and some of 
them might even be _good_ clues.

One time, when I had more time on my hands, I started compiling a list of 
conditions which a non-technician might describe as "stuck key", or as your 
customer says "doesn't work".  I quit at 50.

Assume nothing: expect anything...



>From: Robert Finley [mailto:rfinley@rcn.com]
>Sent: 26 September 2005 01:43
>To: pianotech@ptg.org
>Subject: Repair and Tuning of Estey Baby Grand
>
>I have been asked to tune someone's Estey baby grand piano. The owner told 
>me that one of the notes on the piano doesn't work, but I have absolutely 
>no information about the problem, and will have to wait until I see and 
>inspect the piano. I assume I will have to fix the problem before I start 
>the tuning, but wonder how I should approach this.
>
>I presume I will take the action out, compare the action of the faulty 
>note with its neighbor's, and diagnose and fix the problem. I am not sure 
>what supplies and parts I should bring along in order to repair the note. 
>There could be dozens of reasons why the note doesn't work, involving any 
>of dozens of parts. Maybe there will be a broken part that cannot be 
>repaired, and a new one has to be ordered (if it is even possible to get 
>replacement parts for this brand of piano or something close), so the 
>problem couldn't be fixed there and then. Please could you advise me how I 
>should deal with this problem so that I can keep the customer satisfied 
>and happy? Thank you very much.
>
>Robert Finley



Conrad Hoffsommer - Keyboard Technician
Luther College, 700 College Dr., Decorah, Iowa 52101-1045
1-(563)-387-1204 // Fax 1-(563)-387-1076

- Right now, I'm hoping to live until my age matches my golf score,
- Until then, I'll have to be content to have my IQ match my handicap.