"smelly piano"

[Bill Peterson]

Terry--Tell her husband to stop peeing in the piano.   Send this to your
competitor.  If you do not find the cause of the moisture it will come back
to haunt you.  I would not use bleach as it is extremely corrosive to
polished steel--strings you know.  Bill Peterson
----- Original Message -----
From: Charly Tuner <charly_tuner@hotmail.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2000 9:03 PM
Subject: "smelly piano"


> Got a call from a lady asking what I could do to rid her old upright (30
> years old) of a "blackish mildew-like substance", that she told me  gives
> off an almost unbearable odor. I am guessing, until I actually see it,
that
> it is indeed some kind of fungus/mildew. She also told me that she has
> sprayed the piano with diluted bleach, but that is only a short lived fix.
I
> told her that In order for the problem to go away, that the piano should
be
> COMPLETELY cleaned, and WIPED DOWN, with a water/bleach solution. I told
her
> that in order to do it correctly and completely, that it would most likely
> be an all day job, which I could do at her residence. I told her that if
the
> job took a total of 6 hours, that I would have to charge $400. Since I
have
> never done a job like this before, I based the fee on the equivalent of 5
> tunings at my standard $80 tuning fee. Does this sound reasonable for six
> straight hours of tedious detail work? A fellow tech in my area said he
> would probably charge $600-$700...this seems a tad excessive. Your
opinions
> are appreciated. Thanks!
>
> Terry Peterson
> Los Angeles, CA
> Associate Member, PTG
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
>