[pianotech] Haynes Piano Manual

[David Boyce]

Somehow the existence of the Haynes Piano Manual had escaped me. I 
ordered a copy from Amazon, and I am very impressed with it!

http://www.haynes.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&productId=49251&langId=-1

Haynes are publishers well-known in the UK for car owners' manuals for 
every make and model of car. In more recent times they have diversified 
into household appliance manuals.

This is an interesting publishing approach for a piano book. As we know, 
technical books about the piano, like Reblitz, are a 'niche market'. 
Because the volume of sales is low, there is no economy of scale, which 
means that colour is an impossibility within an affordable price range. 
Haynes Manuals, on the other hand, are aimed at a mass market, which 
means high sales volume and therefore economy of scale.  The Piano 
Manual is ostensibly written for all piano owners. But it is much more 
than a basic guide to pianos.  It is very well laid out, typical of the 
Haynes Manuals, and copiously illustrated with colour photos 
throughout.  There is a great deal of repair information etc, and the 
colour is a great boon, as everything is so much clearer and easier to 
make out, in colour photos of piano action parts.

There is a lot here that the average owner will never wish to attempt. 
But that's OK, and is typical of this genre: when I used to buy the 
Manuals for whatever car I owned, it was not with the intention of 
removing the engine and stripping the gearbox.  But just finding out how 
to remove a bit of trim so as to access some part, made the books 
worthwhile.

The focus is on UK pianos and no other work before this has covered this 
ground for UK pianos.

This is a laudable and largely very successful effort.  In the guise of 
a mass-market book fort all piano owners, we have a full-colour repair 
manual that would be useful to any piano technology student.

We know that as techs we don't always agree on methods, and there are 
some ideas and opinions I don't necessarily agree with. But it's an 
extremely worthwhile addition to the literature.

Best regards,

David.
www.davidboyce.co.uk
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