Can I do some repair ?

[paul bruesch]

A few months back, I had an email inquiry from someone, not a client, who
had refinished her old upright. She wanted to know about leveling the keys.
I offered to come and do it but she just wanted free advice. I started
talking about punchings, front and center rails, key height and key dip,
then very quickly realized that I could wind up spending a lot of time
trying to type out a lot of free advice, so I directed her to the local
library which has the Reblitz book. Come to think of it, I'm not absolutely
certain Reblitz has key leveling and dip regulation, but I would imagine
that it does. I haven't heard another peep out of her. I should dig up the
old emails and follow up to see how it came out.

Paul Bruesch
Stillwater, MN

On Fri, Aug 1, 2008 at 10:49 AM, joel a. jones <jajones2 at wisc.edu> wrote:

> List,
>
> Situation:    Recently retired professional.  Has plenty of time, and
> claims to be an amateur wood worker.  Sold their house and are moving.  Time
> to fix the piano or.....    I give him an estimate for
> the repair.  As we talked he asked if there were things he could do as this
> was of interest to him.
>
> Can I do some repair and save some money???????
>
> Glimpsing his copy of Reblitz I answered I charge XXX an hour if you help.
>         He said GREAT !       Many hours later and twice the amount I quoted
> he was still saying GREAT !
>
> 1. He found that the regulation, cleaning was time consuming and very
> refined.
>
> 2. He found a new respect for what was involved in the repair of his piano,
> and the skill
> I have developed over the years in my profession.
>
> 3. It is now HIS piano and he is proud of his accomplishment.   He has a
> big investment in that
> piano, and the education was worth the price to him.
>
> I took a great leap of faith with this customer, and I'm glad I followed my
> intuiation.
> Anybody have this type of experience?
>
>
> Joel Jones, RPT
> Madison, WI
>
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