older Steinway whippens

[Ron Nossaman]

Bubba say: "Good judgement come from experience, Experience come from bad
judgement."

Soften 'em up for the possible (probable) action replacement if stage one
doesn't work out, and try to salvage and regulate what's there. You have
given them the message that you are trying to find an optimum
cost/performance mix for their specific circumstance. If you find more
problems than gratification in the process, they have been advised of the
possibility and generally don't kick too much about the cost of doing it
right from the ground up. On the other hand, if your attempted regulation of
the existing action parts proves workable, you become an instant hero, pay
for the time spent in the attempt, and build a foundation of credibility for
future work on this piano, or any referrals that are forthcoming as a
result. The important thing here, in my opinion, is to let the customer know
EXACTLY what the situation is, in your opinion, so they will know what is
happening, and why, through the entire process. I have found people to be
pretty willing to work with me on things like this if I can just get across
to them what the situation is, what the options are, and what the fall-back
contingencies entail. Piece of cake, right? (HA!) 
 
For further clarification, just mail in a SASE and $2,000 to...



At 07:51 PM 8/12/98 -0400, you wrote:
>At 06:42 PM 8/12/98 EDT, you wrote:
>>My recommendation would be to encourage your customer to rebuild the action
>>with all new parts. If they don't want to do that, I would suggest you walk
>>away from it. 
>>
>>This is a case where the rebuilder did more harm than good by not doing it
>>right in the first place. For you to try to fix his problems it is going to
>>more headaches than you probably want to undertake. The bottom line is that
>>your customer will want the job done right. So unless you have new parts to
>>work with, it's just not going to work. 
>>
>>Willem Blees RPT
>>St. Louis
>>
>>
>He never said the old parts were failing. How can he be sure the parts are
>not 
>worthy if he doesn't attempt regulating them. This is where experience is
>achieved. You might surprise yourself at how good those whippens can be.
>
>I have many old actions in customer's homes which function satisfactorily.
>
>New parts are not always the answer.
>
>Jon Page
>Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass. (jpage@capecod.net)
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>	
>~~~~~~~~`~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>

 Ron