"first" jobs was Re: Brambach grands

[Z! Reinhardt]

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> >I think it would be an adventure if we shared some of our first jobs.

Which would you like?  A first tuning job?  Concert job?  Voicing job? 
Repair job?  I'll start with the first major [in-shop] repair job,
something that was attempted only last year.

Just for the record -- the following major repair (bass bridge replacement
with a friend) was the first attempt at an in-shop repair in the absence of
teachers and/or mentors in the shop with us.  The piano in question was an
entry-level American-made console dating from the late 1930s.  The bass
bridge had a major crack where a glue joint had failed, as well as more
cracks in the cap and severely *displaced* bridgepins from the
side-bearing.   Getting the old bridge off was a job and a half and then
some, thanks to some screws that held the bridge to the apron, and the glue
that held the apron in place.  We ended up sending the old bridge and apron
to Pianotek for duplication.  Neither one of us had the appropriate power
tools or decent know-how for the job, say nothing that the original bridge
had been severely distorted by warpage and blown pins.  Getting everything
ready to accept the new bridge assembly and actually getting it all
installed was also quite the job.  Since I wasn't the job fore(wo)man, I
had to do things according to my friend's plans and that meant not removing
the plate, despite what all had to be done under it (getting a layer of old
glue off for starters).  Somehow the job came out OK (not great) despite
the mass incompetence between us.  We got paid, although by the time we
were finished, I had written off the job as an educational experience.

By the way -- many many thanks again to all on this list who had offered
answers to our questions about the cracked bass bridge last year.  Every
response had at least some tidbit of information that contributed to our
understanding of what we were trying to do.  It was the sum total of all
those tidbits that made the difference between being able to do the job we
did or producing an unmentionable disaster as a result of ignorance.

Z! Reinhardt RPT
Ann Arbor  MI
diskladame@provide.net