stumped

[Michael Magness]

On Dec 3, 2007 10:17 PM, Leslie Bartlett <l-bartlett at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

>  I tuned (no I really didn't) for "Dennis" today- and old Howard (sn
> 220***- for which I didn't find a reasonable match in Pierce's). The retired
> engineer had married a Russian lady, young enough to be his daughter- and
> nicely I made that mistake.  Bass strings were dead, multiple bridge cracks,
> the strings painted gold, several replaced, about six pins in the center
> where a tiny amount of counterclockwise pressure sent the string a half or
> whole tone flat. They also popped loudly when they let loose- like Baldwin,
> only it was virtually no useful tension on the pin.  There were a couple
> pins up around note 80 which were the same way.  Hammer 88 was within 1mm of
> having the  felt open up at the bottom of the grooves on the flat-topped
> hammers.  Problem was, the man had bought this as a birthday present for
> this wife who is a HIGH level concert player while she was out of the
> country.     I was there over four hours, so mad that they guy had gotten
> screwed (I believe the damage was done before prior owner sold it to him-
> she wasn't a player, so bought it mostly as furniture), and that I couldn't
> make a decent tuning.  The Russian asked if I had ever tuned a piano like
> this before……………………….       I pulled the action and went through everything
> with him, and he seemed more than satisfied that little if anything could be
> done- but the wife- I think she wanted me dead.
>
> When and HOW does one just give up on a POS when nothing works?  This
> really bothered me.  I've tuned Howards before and hated them, but got them
> tuned.  Nothing rendered decently, nothing stayed stable for me.  I've never
> had anything quite like this before, and hope I never do again.
>
> They can't afford another piano, though their house was probably valued at
> twice mine, and they had two rather new cars (Honda an Buick) I think.
> I'm coming off a week of three Houston Symphony Tunings, another major Hall,
> two tunings of the most expensive piano in town, and directing two
> performances of the opera Amahl and the Night Visitors.   I know I was
> tired………  But I had just done quite ok on a Petrof for one of my really
> persnickety customers, so I haven't completely lost my "tuning mind".  I'm
> mad they got screwed, mad she can't play musically on this pos, but still
> feel somehow I should have been able to do something to make it work.
> Sorry to be kind of nuts here, but I'm feeling kind of lost.
>
> les bartlett
>

Hi Les,

It's that time of year, you hear about everyone being nice and good and
helpful then you run into this piece of c__p and get to be the bearer of bad
news!
Except I doubt that you were, the bearer of the bad news, completely anyway.
If she is anywhere near the pianist you say she is, she was well aware of
much of what you were going to tell them before you got there! She just
needed you to convince him! I don't think she wanted you dead, him maybe,
not you!
I don't want to sound heartless but this guy kind of asked for it when he
bought it without having it checked out, you'd think at his age in his
profession he
would know better!

I have a couple of customers that have done this, saw the ad for that $500
grand piano on Saturday morning and rushed out and bought it.
I call them million dollar grands, I'll probably make a million bucks
keeping these PSO's together until they are ready to give up on them! <grin>

One is an Apollo, an ex-player piano grand when I go to tune it, I schedule
an extra couple of hours for the other things that will inevitibly come up.
Of course these are student pianos or retireds who play for their own
amusement so their standards aren't that high. I also had a woman call me
to tune the 10 year old used Baldwin console she had bought from a private
party. I arrived and it was immaculate, a cherry finish without a scratch,
very flat as I checked down the keyboard I noticed a rattle, no it wasn't
the pedal rods, definetly sounding board. I moved it out from the wall, the
sounding board had multiple cracks, about a dozen in all. I was told the
previous owners had never had it tuned, they just placed it next to the
fireplace,
because it looked nice there and ploished it regularly! I spent 8 hours
fixing that soundboard!

The simple answer to your question of when and how does one give up on a PSO
when nothing works? ASAP! Find the worst example of each point you
 want to make about why this is really just a stack of firewood masquerading
as a piano(yes, I have used that very sentence to customers)and demonstrate
your reasons! When they look at you and say but can't you just......... Look
them right in the eye and say to them no I can't, I am not a thief, I am a
piano
technician(Yes, I have also used that sentence to customers).
I collect my fee for my time, usually just a service call, suggest they call
me if they find another piano and want it looked at and make my exit.

We all get screwed every day, one way or another and I don't see too many
others getting upset about it on my behalf. So I try to take my customers
getting screwed as another symptom of life in America. It's not as if the
information isn't available, online, at the library or from their friendly
piano technician.

So who should you be mad at, the person who sold it, probably unwittingly,
the guy who bought it who should have done his homework first or the
situation
you were put in trying to explain it all? Haven't we all heard buyer beware?
You have no fault here Les, you're just the messenger but that
somehow leaves you with a guilty feeling, like you should have been able to
improve it
somehow. I know that feeling I've been there but that's the problem,
sometimes there just isn't any room for improvement then it's time for that
piano bonfire! <big grin>

Mike

-- 
The real trouble with reality is that there's no background music.
Michael Magness
Magness Piano Service
608-786-4404
www.IFixPianos.com
email mike at ifixpianos.com
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