[CAUT] The high cost of trying to save money (was: NY hammers/ Hamburg hammers)

[Edward Sambell]

A friend of mine had to explain  to a customer that the tuning on her grand 
would not hold due to loose tuning pins. Later he was consulted again to review 
the piano, and to his amazement found the entire pins encased in a neat slab of 
cement.The owner of the piano had discussed the problem with a building 
contractor friend who suggested he could fix the problem, and to get a tuning 
done and call him immediately. In the meantime he built the necessary forms. I 
asked my friend if he intended to add a jackhammer to his toolkit. These are the 
concrete facts. 


Ted Sambell




________________________________
From: Tom Gorley <tomgorley88 at sonic.net>
To: caut at ptg.org
Sent: Sun, February 13, 2011 1:12:09 PM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] The high cost of trying to save money (was: NY hammers/ 
Hamburg hammers)

Hey, that welding story by Israel is not the only one like it.  Ken Kadwell had 
the same experience in the 70's.   ---Tom Gorley




On Feb 13, 2011, at 9:56 AM, Delwin D Fandrich wrote:

It was a small town in North Dakota. I don’t remember the name of the farmer but 
the piano tuner was my brother, Darrell. As I recall the tuning pins were 
extremely loose (as would be expected in a farm house in N.D.) and he was having 
a hard time getting some of them to hold. He explained about new pins, etc., to 
no avail. I think it was the next year that he was called back, not to tune the 
piano, but to repair a “few” broken strings. You can check with him for the rest 
of the story….
> 
>ddf
> 
>Delwin D Fandrich
>Piano Design & Fabrication
>620 South Tower Avenue
>Centralia, Washington 98531 USA
>del at fandrichpiano.com
>ddfandrich at gmail.com
>Phone  360.736.7563
> 
>From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Israel 
>Stein
>Sent: Sunday, February 13, 2011 7:56 AM
>To: caut at ptg.org
>Subject: [CAUT] The high cost of trying to save money (was: NY hammers/ Hamburg 
>hammers)
> 
>
>Then there is the one about the farmer out in the boonies who hired the "best 
>tuner in town" to tune his wife's piano. The guy did the best tuning he could, 
>collected his fee after convincing the suspicious farmer that it was indeed the 
>best possible tuning on that piano and went home. Next day he got a callback 
>from the farmer complaining that the piano sounded terrible. He went out to 
>check the piano - and found a black spot next to each tuning pin. The farmer 
>welded each tuning pin to the plate... The story might be apocryphal, but it 
>does illustrate to what lengths ignorant people will go to save a few bucks at 
>the expense of a service provider (and often, their own property or well being) 
>...
>
>Israel Stein


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