No Subject

[Kevin E. Ramsey RPT]

By all means, sell her a regulation, and point out voicing and tuning too.
Tell her what will happen if she "goes it alone". and  point out the danger
of moving the player parts around with brittle rubber hoses, etc. etc. If
she wants to do it herself, let her know what she's getting into. You don't
let her have to learn this stuff the HARD way.
-----Original Message-----
From: Tvak@AOL.COM <Tvak@AOL.COM>
To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org>
Date: Friday, September 08, 2000 8:39 PM
Subject: No Subject


>I got a call from a lady this week.  She had a 1923 Wurlitzer player piano.
>She informed me that the piano needed new bridle straps, and that many of
the
>hammer butt springs were not in place,but she wanted to do the work herself
>and asked me if I would sell her some bridle straps, and if there was a
tool
>she could buy to get the butt springs back in place.  Also, there were also
>several keys that she could not depress or play, and needed someone to fix
>them for her.  So I made an appointment to come out and fix the "frozen"
>keys.
>I found it unusual that a client would know the correct terminology for
>various parts of the action.  When I came to look at the piano, I found she
>had a copy of the REBLITZ book on piano repair. She was absolutely correct
in
>that the piano needed new bridle straps and that several hammer butt
springs
>were not in place.  I repositioned the hammer butt springs for her.  The
>"frozen" keys were a result of the jacks being lodged under the hammer
butts
>(she had removed and then replaced the action with many broken bridle
straps,
>resulting in the jacks being lodged there) so I tripped them out into their
>correct position, thereby "fixing" them.  I then quoted her a price on
>replacing the bridle straps, but she was very interested in doing the
bridle
>straps herself.  So I decided to sell her a set of bridle straps, and
showed
>her how to go about removing the old bridle straps and install a new set of
>cork-tipped bridle straps.  I charged her for the work I had done and for
the
>set of bridle straps and went home.  (She had also, by the way, replaced
the
>old felt front key rail punchings with new felt purchased at a fabric
store,
>cutting them into circles and punching holes in them herself!  Quite the
>self-starter.)
>
>My question regards the ethics of this situation.  Having only been in the
>newsgroup about 3 months now, I have come to respect the opinions of so
many
>of you---what is your collective take on this situation?  Should I have
>refused to supply her with the bridle straps?  She could easily break a
>wippen flange, or a jack.  Then again, she'd call me to come fix it for
her.
>I don't know...I'm just curious as to what any of you might have done in
this
>situation.
>
>Tom S.
>Chicago Area
>