[pianotech] Spinets - was Elbows

[Terry Farrell]

Oh, don't get your feathers in a ruffle Joe  ;-).  I service many spinets and don't have any particular problem with them. If fact, I have been recommending one to a couple of clients looking for a piano - one of my long-time clients is selling her 1968 Yamaha spinet - for its size, a very lovely piano indeed.  But then again, for every Yamaha spinet and well-preserved Acrosonic spinet, there are soooo many Gulbranson, et. al. spinets that are 60+ years old now and have simply been around the block too many times to make much of a decent piano for a reasonable cost. I'll work on most any piano, but my bottom line is that if the owner will still have an old worn-out, poor-sounding, poor-playing piano after spending $500 or $1K on it, then yes, there are more cost effective alternatives.

Sincerely,

           - Man

On Nov 23, 2012, at 1:01 AM, Joseph Garrett wrote:

> Terry the Farrell said: "If I were to do that scope of work, I'd easily
> double that fee (mid-west prices). And most any spinet owner would be
> ill-advised to put that much $$ into their little spinet."
> 
> Terry,
> Please tell me what would you advise someone to do with that $500.00? Buy
> another piano, of dubious ilk, that probably needs more work? Or...perhaps
> use it as a down payment on a Chinese POS???!! Hmmm? which one? that is a
> puzzlement. a piano made with particle board/select hardwood and bad
> workmenship? Or...a slightly old piano, made with real solid core panels,
> that Gramma paid hard earned cash for? Which would be of more value to the
> client? Which would give good service?
> I can say that I have replaced wippen flanges, damper levers, jacks and
> flanges, hammer butt flanges and elbows on the same piano. I replaced with
> WOOD! That was 30 years ago and it's still going strong. Musically? Well,
> it ain't no "concert pianer" but it's the one that the client wants and
> loves! I have many such, that I've done. Without regret on both sides of
> the fence.
> You call yourself a Woodworker. Well, which is better: Wood? Plastic? MDF
> HDF LDF? Select Hardwood of dubious ilk, with the strength of balsa? And
> then there are the poorly made actions. Don't even get me started on that.
> If you've ever worked on the newer pianos, you'd know the answers to my
> questions. The Spinet has been getting a bad rap for waaaayyy to damned
> long and I'm sick of hearing it! It's what puts the spuds on the table of a
> lot of beginning technicians. I include myself and I suspect you too, Terry.
> Joe 
> 
> 
> Joe Garrett, R.P.T.
> Captain of the Tool Police
> Squares R I
> 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20121123/235e3655/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: May25_08.jpg
Type: image/jpg
Size: 50341 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20121123/235e3655/attachment-0001.jpg>