[pianotech] Cracked plate thing

[Jeff Deutschle]

This reminds me of a potential customer I stumbled into a conversation
with. They recently got an old upright that is in the barn right now,
but since it won’t fit through the door, they are waiting until they
have a chance to remove a large window and get it in the house that
way. I said if there was any doubt as to its condition, it would be
best for me to take a look at it before they move it into the house.

Since your customer probably won’t have a great deal of work done, I
would suggest that you give the piano its first pitch raise while it
is still in the farmhouse. If it doesn’t hold together, they have
saved themselves two moves.


On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 12:40 PM, Bryn Latta<brynla at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Yes I checked the pins and was surprised at how nice they felt. I sent the
> lady an estimate for a variety of things, I suggested that to get the piano
> working well she would need new strings, repair of a cracked bass bridge,
> new hammers, damper felts, bushings etc. And I gave her a price. But there
> was not a single thing broken or not functioning in the action and the
> board, with minimal crown, still had a nice tone when I thumped the bridge.
> So she will probably never get all this work done and it's probably not
> worth doing... maybe I should have been a little more discouraging in my
> assessment. To be honest it was the first time I'd done an assessment of
> this kind of piano, although I learned about it in school.
> -------------------------------------------------------
> Paul M wrote:
>
> Have you put a tuning hammer to the tuning pins to check the tightness of
> the pins?
>
> The thought of removing a piano from an abandoned farmhouse and putting it
> in someones living room or better yet dinning room is disgusting.
>
> As most have shared (this crack) may be the least of your concern.
>
> Removing keys and the action and all dirt under the keys as well as blowing
> out the action is a must.
>
> The very least this piano needs is reconditioning after a good cleaning.
>
> I trust you are aware of all this, I simply had to jump in and add my two
> cents.
>
> Paul M.
>
>
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-- 
Regards,
Jeff Deutschle

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