Just needs a little tuning!

[Farrell]

I've also been reading this thread with some wonder. Just a quick tally of proposed fees for the minimum this piano would need - complete restringing, new hammers, damper felt and action & damper regulation, I come up with $2,800, which doesn't include running back and forth to this guy's house, etc.

I gotta admit, I'm very curious what the "just high enough" bid was and what the proposed tasks were. I'm also curious what the suggested new and used comparable piano prices given were. I mean, you can't even buy a piano that bad anymore - can you? They don't make GRAND pianos anymore - do they? A new comparable piano - if there were such a beast - might be $2K (just thinking that you can pick up some trashy little thing today for about $2.5K)? And used - wholesale - zero; private retail - $200 - $600; dealer retail - $1K - $1,300?

Only once have I refused to work on a piano when the owner really wanted to do the/some work. Almost always I can educate the owner toward some better options. Of course, when there is significant sentimental value to the piano, all common sense goes out the window - I know that and I can work with that. But that is reportedly not the case here. 

If a reputable piano tech can't make the owner see the light in a situation like this, then........

$2,800 just to end up with a crappy little piano? No, I would walk from this one - I would fear my reputation suffering. For $2,800 the person could go to a dealer and buy an excellent condition Yamaha P-22. With some legwork, they could find a decent U-1 or U-3 in a private sale. For less than that cost they could find a later model good condition American studio piano. When pianos like the aforementioned are available at a similar or less cost, it makes NO sense whatsoever to sink that kind of money into a low-end spinet.

Even if all the work needed cost $500 - even if it were $200, I would still try to talk the owner into replacement.....

Just my rant worth.....

Terry Farrell
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  Jeez, on an Aeolian spinet, I would think the money would be better spent toward a better piano.
      --David Nereson, RPT 
    -----Original Message-----
    "Mamma said there be days like this."

    This morning I woke up to a terrible rain storm.  My first piano of the day was a new customer only 10 miles away who told me she had an upright piano that just needed a "tuning".

    I arrived to find a 1975 Henry F. Miller Spinet.  It didn't look too bad from the outside.  Then I opened it up.  the felt on every single hammer is seperating from the hammers.  I counted 24 bass strings broken, and 26 treble strings.

    I showed her what it looked like on the inside and she asked me if it was worth fixing.  I told her that she was the only one who could decide that.  I gave her a price for re-stringing, and replacing all the hammers and a good cleaning.  I explained to her what a comperable piano would cost her to purchase new and used.  I bid the job high enough (but fair for the amount of work that needs to be done) and figured that no sane person would want to put that kind of money into this piano.  She wants it fixed!   

    I usually just lurk here and glean all the knowlege I can from you fine folks, but my new year's resolution is to participate more in the list.  I thought this gem of a piano was worth sharing.  I'm just glad all it needed was a good tuning!  I don't think I could stand it if it needed some serious work done!

    Joey
    On Key Piano
    Plains, GA
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