[pianotech] Tuning pin height

[David Love]

I suppose there could possibly be a job where you have to choose between
cosmetics, charges that compromise the payer's ability to pay the mortgage
and some more important functional details, but most of the time you don't.
I don't think we were ever really talking about lining up beckets versus
regulating the action properly.  Neither, of course, does not perfectly
aligned beckets mean that the rest of the job was crap.  But 99% of the time
you can pay attention to all the functional and performance aspects AND the
cosmetic details that make the job look just that much nicer.  I don't see
it as a compromise nor should those who pay attention to the beckets and
other cosmetic details be indicted for necessarily leaving other more
important aspects undone.  

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com


Yes, I am aware of that. I work both sides of the fence - I am only 
half-time at the University and have only been there for about the last 
5 years of my career. What bothers me about all this is there IS that 
time pressure on the private practitioner - from the client who wants 
his/her instrument back and from the need to pay the mortgage at some 
point. And guess what one is working on when that time pressure comes - 
voicing and regulation. And so more often than not I see all the fussing 
has been done early in the process - when the cosmetic stuff is being 
done - and the latter, functionally critical stuff gets shorted. It's 
really easy to talk yourself into believing that the piano plays and 
sounds fine (especially when the regulating is done by formula and not 
on the basis of function - but that's an entirely different discussion). 
Not that I am complaining - I have made plenty money re-regulating and 
revoicing some of those "purty" pianos over the years. It's just not 
good for the profession when people find out that those very expensive 
nice-looking "fully rebuilt" pianos aren't what they are cracked up to 
be... I just hate it when people generalize about workmanship on the 
basis of insignificant cosmetic details.

Israel Stein