Learning the craft (was Bosendorfer...)

[Clyde Hollinger]

Stephen,

I do not want to discourage your interest in rebuilding pianos.  With your
enthusiasm you may indeed be a master rebuilder or even a piano designer someday.
But my opinion is that you are getting the cart before the horse.  As in any other
field, you need to understand the basics before you specialize.  Thus, I suspect we
may have trouble taking your questions about piano construction seriously.

The pianotech list is a great source of information for all of us, but there's no
way it can take the place of good fundamental information and experience.  So I ask
the rest of you-- how does one go about learning piano design?  That's what I think
Stephen needs to know.  Del, anything to contribute here?

I would suggest that you first get the basics, such as Randy Potter's
correspondence course.  There are also schools you can attend.  In the meantime,
don't let this "hobby" take too much time from your college studies unless, of
course, you want to change from your current course of study to piano technology.
Keep your 4.0.  (I say that as a parent who is seeing his own three kids through
the college years.)

Regards, Clyde

Stephen Airy wrote:

> As of yet I have NO experience (yet).  I would like to learn how to rebuild
> pianos, but I don't immediately have the time (college), space (no
> outbuilding on my property), or money (no job right now -- but your help in
> how to get started in piano tuning would help -- I have had a few lessons
> from Lee Hintz in San Diego area and I know Bruce Stevens).  Speaking of
> tuning, I still notice that sometimes (tuning by ear -- I have virtually no
> pitch reference at home where I'm practicing on 3 pianos (a 4'11" baby
> grand, a 52" upright, and a 57" upright), and I don't exactly trust the
> computer.  I often notice that I might be able to get the temperament
> fairly good in tune, but there'll often be a stray wildly-beating fifth or
> two (about 3-5bps near the midrange of the piano)
>
> I had posted a picture of a junky piano a while back -- what do you think
> of practicing rebuilding on pianos of similar condition? (assuming the
> pinblock is still good) -- also, what brands would you stay away from when
> considering rebuilding a piano?  Also, I'm considering on starting out on
> uprights, and when i feel like working on a pinblock do it on a grand or --
> what high-quality brands of uprights (for example my ideas are Steinway &
> Bosendorfer) do you think it might be possible to consider replacing a
> pinblock?