Killer Octave

[Don]

Hi Ron,

If the problem *is* lack of stiffeness and the piano is out of warrantee,
would the car spring approach be an option? Or is a new board the only
possible fix?

At 09:23 AM 09/08/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>> This killer octave thing to me is real, but its cause is a
>>bit fuzzy, because I have never fixed one.
>
>Of course it's real, and you won't ever have fixed one until you've
>replaced the soundboard with a better design. The board just isn't stiff
>enough in that area.
>
>
>
>> What is the consensus here -
>>should I point it out to the owner and suggest he may want to initiate a
>>warranty claim (let 'em voice it six times and replace strings, etc. before
>>you insist on a new soundboard/piano)?
>
>I don't usually point out bad soundboards unless the customer has a voicing
>complaint or the problem is DRAMATIC. There are just too many of them. In
>this case, maybe you should at least ask the customer if it bothers him. If
>you pursue it, have the customer go through channels and contact the
>manufacturer yourself as well. The first thing you will learn is that in
>the entire history of the company, no one has ever contacted them with a
>soundboard complaint. Why on earth would you think it's the soundboard? Who
>told you that? Are you sure you're a real tech? It must be voicing. Offer
>to voice it, regulate it, tighten plate bolts, polish bridge pins, or any
>other of the long list of things that it surely is besides the soundboard.
>Take days at it, be extremely meticulous, and charge them your full rate
>for everything you do. Report back, no fix, then stand aside while they
>truck in at least one other tech from at least 200 miles away so do the
>same thing. Since you did such a good job fixing all the things that
>weren't the cause of the problem, the other guy will not find much to do,
>but will manage to spend a day at it anyway because that's what he was
>hired to do. The imported tech(s) may or may not report the problem solved,
>but the customer needs to report to whoever they are dealing with in the
>system after each attempt to keep the process going. Eventually, the
>manufacturers will tire of throwing money at this wholly mysterious problem
>with this apparently unreasonable customer with the tech from Hell and
>replace the piano. This one will, you bet your great aunt Aphasia, go
>directly to some dealer's showroom floor and be sold to someone else who
>will probably never notice the killer octave. That's not a problem though,
>because three expert technicians have gone over the piano thoroughly (at
>great expense to the company, mind you, thus establishing their good
>intentions) and fixed everything that was wrong with it. The replacement
>may be fine, in which case you win. Or it may have the same problem, even
>after having been worked on by three highly paid expert technicians in
>another state. 
>
>In the past, I have tried to save everyone time and money by declining to
>try to fix bad soundboards with voicing, bearing adjustments, and
>regulation. The money was spent anyway, I never got compensated for time I
>had in the process trying to help the customer, and never got any
>acknowledgement whatsoever for my efforts. My current thinking is that if
>you aren't willing to give away your time and knowledge on killer octave
>soundboard problems, you have to be part of the problem and take the money
>the manufacturers insist on spending on what you have already determined is
>not the problem. If you live to be a thousand, you'll never win, but you
>can't live to be a thousand if you don't eat. Giving a manufacturer a break
>doesn't educate them either, unless they are among the few that are
>interested in their product already.  
>
>That's not a consensus, but it is an opinion.
>
>Ron N
>
>

Regards,
Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.M.T., R.P.T.

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