On 1/6/2011 8:43 AM, Ron Nossaman wrote: > This is why working on the low end stuff is such a curse. You can't do > it right and not starve to death, and you can't patch and fake it > without feeling like you're stealing from them and misrepresenting > what you did. Victimless repairs become less and less possible in the > lower quality instruments. Where there's a will there's a way. I find that people appreciate hearing what is and is not a reasonable attempt to make on one of these instruments, including (once in awhile) that they can buy something much better instead of trying to improve what they've got, so it's time to move on. I've had customers now and then who did move on, and found a much better big old upright within a day or two, after hearing that the one they had managed to saddle themselveswith(and which several tuners had failed to tune adequately) would never be tunable to anyone's satisfaction. As for some of the sadder spinets, one can give some of these old crocks what one might call hospice care: just make it comfortable. I'm glad Ron Koval shared that very musical clip. And imagine what old Betsy could have done with a tuning and a little damper regulation. (Neither of which would steal the bread out of our mouths.) This recording seems a perfect illustration of the idea that even a spinet is far more piano than no piano at all. Susan Kline -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20110106/33717c07/attachment.htm>
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