[pianotech] Bechstein Cracked Plate and Pin Block

[David Love]

There are a particular vintage of Bechstein pianos that very often crack in
that spot--early 1900's don't remember when exactly.  Personally, I agree
and would not do anything invasive with this piano that involved playing
with the tensions unless it was a complete teardown repair the cracks with
the plate-repair-method-of-the-day and even then with serious disclaimers
about any guarantees that the struts won't fail again. My tendency is to
avoid these situations.  Give it to the more adventurous young folks whose
hearts are a bit stronger than mine. 

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com


-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Ron Nossaman
Sent: Monday, June 22, 2009 8:27 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Bechstein Cracked Plate and Pin Block

William Truitt wrote:

> The plate cracks are where Bechstein plates usually crack.  

Isn't this the "it's supposed to smoke like that" general 
purpose conversation stopper? "Usually" crack? Wouldn't the 
thing to do be following the current physicians' credo to not 
come within a mile of anything that's not on the malpractice 
insurance approved list of absolutely safe and maximally 
profitable procedures, and charge whatever it's possible to 
get away with to duck anything else?

Quoth the Wopper, the only way to win is not to play the game, 
at least in this case.

Ron N