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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>good opinion. Chris =
Solliday</FONT></DIV>
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style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; =
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: =
black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=ZahringerK@missouri.edu =
href="mailto:ZahringerK@missouri.edu">Ken
Zahringer</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=caut@ptg.org
href="mailto:caut@ptg.org">College and University Technicians</A> =
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, July 15, 2005 =
12:00
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [CAUT] =
verticals</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT face=Garamond><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">Les,<BR><BR>By the time you finish the =
cleaning,
repinning, etc., your labor costs are likely to get close to the cost =
of new
parts. My question always is, for what I have to charge, what is =
the
customer getting? How much longer are those 100-year-old =
hammershanks,
flanges, bushings, springs, etc., going to last? I did an action =
some
years back where I just replaced hammers, shanks, butts, and all the
felt/cloth. Now it seems that every time I go back to tune it =
there are
one or two wood pieces to repair/replace/reglue, and that note =
hasn’t played
in a month or two. It may cost a little more to replace =
everything, but
when you consider what the customer is getting for their money, it’s =
a pretty
easy sell. BTW, I have never found the damping to be acceptable =
on one
of these old guys, even with new damper felt, unless I also replaced =
the
damper flanges & springs.<BR><BR>Just one guy’s opinion,<BR>Ken
Z.<BR><BR><BR>On 7/14/05 10:08 PM, "Leslie Bartlett"
<l-bartlett@sbcglobal.net> wrote:<BR><BR></SPAN></FONT>
<BLOCKQUOTE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px"><FONT face=Arial>How =
marvelous to
replace all action parts, but what on earth must one charge for such =
a
thing??????????? This Story and Clark is 100 years old, =
and most
of the action parts are still quite tight, though I will have to do =
some
repinning. I'm replacing hammers, damper felts, damper lever =
felts,
back rail cloth, rest rail cloth, let off button felts, cleaning out =
all the
spring grooves, springs, and lubricating the grooves. The keyboard =
is being
redone by Merle Sanford, and is ivory, and David Geiger is =
restringing the
piano, plugging all the tuning pin holes and redrilling. This =
is
costing a bunch of bucks, and I can't imagine what one would charge =
for a
complete restoration. I'd sure be interested in comments from those =
who have
vastly more experience than I. I tried to get out of =
this job,
but the owner wanted me to do it, and Wim Blees finally cajoled me =
enough to
risk it- so I am no expert at this stuff, and normally seem to =
underprice my
work. What would a "complete restoration" less =
case work,
cost in this world????????<BR></FONT><FONT =
face=Garamond><BR></FONT><FONT
face=Arial>les bartlett</FONT><FONT face=Garamond>
<BR><BR></FONT></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: =
14px"><FONT
face=Garamond><BR><BR>-- <BR>Ken Zahringer, RPT<BR>Piano =
Technician<BR>MU
School of Music<BR>297 Fine Arts<BR>882-1202<BR>cell
489-7529<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></SPAN></BODY></HTML>