Sore point (was QRS question)

[John Lillico, RPT]

>Most of the player retrofits I've seen are in pianos with what used to be
>functional sustenutos before the player was installed. 
>
>Ron N

It has been three years since I first saw the newly purchased Roth & Junius grand. I had been doing some post delivery service for a major Toronto dealer for two years already. This proved to be one of the last.

The owner had concluded a ten year search for the grand of his dreams... and this was it. The problem was that this piano had been retrofitted with a playing system. The purchaser likely didn't know (or wasn't interested). His offer to purchase was accepted and the system was removed prior to delivery.
With no previous knowledge of any of the above, I was assigned to tune the piano. The owner, a non-player, asked me to explain the various functions of the pedals. The right one was a breeze and he could see and hear what the left one did. I explained the sostenuto function and tried to demonstrate it. Nothing!

"Just an adjustment," I assured him as I crawled under the piano with the client right on my heels. I will leave the degree of embarrassment I experienced to your imagination when the client asked about that long trough-like cut through the keybed for which the sostenuto assembly had been removed.

When the client eventually contacted the dealer with his inquiry, they quit calling me as if it was all my fault! Suddenly I had lost 20 per cent of my income.

Eighteen months later, the client had me back. I believe he had had an offer from the dealer to reinstall the system but had yet to act upon it. I've heard nothing from either since.

Sore point, you say?

John Lillico, RPT
Oakville, Ontario