tone sustain

[Les Smith]

On Fri, 25 Sep 1998, Avery Todd wrote:

> Hi Les,
> 
>    I'm going to "step in it" here and agree with both of you. I totally
> agree with what you said but if Frank DOES decide to have another go at it
> in spite of what you said :-), I agree with Susan. It's a great, legitimate
> way of getting those concrete type of hammers down to a reasonable level
> with killing yourself and the hammer by digging holes in them with needles.
> And that's about all needling would accomplish.
>    I hate it when I have to agree with two people on the same post. :-)
> 

Hi, Avery:

My post had absolutely NOTHING to do with steamimg as an approach to
dealing with  rock-hard hammers and EVERYTHING to do with dealers
cutting overhead to the bone by selling disgracefully-prepped pianos to
the uninformed and foolishly trusting piano-buyer, leaving the daunt-
ing task of making these pianos right--which was HIS responsibility
in the first place-- to someone else. Further, when a competent
piano-techncian encounters such a piano and gives its owner an estimate
of what it will cost to do all the work that should have been done by
the dealer, but never was, the customer blames the TECHNICIAN for price-
gouging. After all, how can the piano possibly need that much work? Its
brand new!!! Actually, acting, or rather NOT acting, out of ignorance,
the instrument is now 2,3, or more years old and its problems--original-
ly bad enough--are now greatly compounded. 

I long ago ceased to have to take every job that came my way. I was busy
enough that I could choose which pianos I took on and which ones I didn't.
In a case like this one, I would not, but simply refer the owner back to
the dealer from whom he bought the piano originally and let him deal with
the problems which were of his making. From the way Frank describes him,
the owner of this piano and the dealer deserve each other! There are
plenty of fine-quality, meticulously-maintained pianos out there, owned
by people who know the importance of, entrust their care to, and fully
appreciate the value of, a first-class piano-technician. In all
inhumility, those are the ones I chose to work for. You should, too!

Les Smith   

PS As far as hammer-steaming goes, it's obvious from all the fine
technicians on this list who advocate its use, that it is a valid
approach to dealing with the rock-hard hammers which one encounnters
so frequently these days. In the case above, the DEALER may want to try
steaming this piano's hammers, as well as doing all the other work it
obviously needs. ls