On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 9:59 PM, Leslie Bartlett <l-bartlett at sbcglobal.net>wrote: > Do any of you simply refuse to work on pianos approaching 100 years old? > When do such things cease to be pianos....... ? > les bartlett > > I wrote my answer, see below and then as I was checking it for mistakes, I realized I may have not been answering your question. Yes I do, occasionally but not sight unseen. I charge an estimate fee for my time, sometimes I have to tell them what they have is firewood masquerading as a piano. Other times I tell them what repairs it needs then what we HAVE to do to make it operational enough for their beginner to start lessons. Have I refused to work on one? Yes 2 one had a pinblock/back seperation that was open about an inch wide, I didn't feel it was repairable. The other one the couple hosed out, with a water hose, then they shop vacced out all of the water, they assured me, except every key stuck down, and every hammer went forward but didn't drop back. Those are the 2 I refused to work on in the last 40 years. There have been others I have suggested not fixing and they agreed but those are the only 2 I refused. I have to agree with Conrad and Ron, with my own explanation thrown in. I work, as Conrad says he does, on what comes my way since it all spends the same. I understand Ron's point and if I had the luxury of having that sort of area where there were enough of those sort of jobs to keep me living in the style to which I have accustomed myself, I might do so, however I doubt it. I promised myself when I started out in this business that I wouldn't allow myself to become a piano snob. I'm not saying anyone else is, please don't mis-understand or mis-quote me. I met some people early in my career that felt if the piano wasn't an "xyzz" brand or hadn't been produced in this country or wasn't less than 50 years old it wasn't worth their time. I made it my mission to not condemn any piano because of the name on it, where it came from or how old it was but to evaluate the instrument according to the standards of what the piano should or could be, tempered somewhat by what the needs and budget of the customer. Moreover I learned as I did so that I could be surprised within my own prejudices, finding gems among certain brands that I had always found to be junk on prior occasions. So answering the question I would have to say for the most part, no. I work on several pianos, regularly that are 100+ years old with original strings and soundboards and some of them have a surprisingly good tone and play quite well. I have in the past few years restrung an upright that was 125+ years old, with a straight strung bass and double unisons after spending several hours trying to talk the customer out of doing it! I just finished with a grand that turned 100 this year. I have read, with strong interest, the series of articles in the recent Journals about restringing and replacing pinblocks in old uprights. Most of these are near, if not more than, 100 years old, why would we want to refuse to work on them? They were "overbuilt", massively so and with some tlc can be made to last many more decades! Mike -- I intend to live forever. So far, so good. Steven Wright Michael Magness Magness Piano Service 608-786-4404 www.IFixPianos.com email mike at ifixpianos.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090130/42dc363c/attachment.html>
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