Yes! We have no spoon benders!

[John Ross]

That is one of the benefits of going to a Convention. Usually, you have some
suppliers there, and you get a chance for hands on. You can also get
instructions on proper use, and query other techs, as to how good a specific
tool is.
Getting the best tool, and knowing how to use it, is really important. Time
saved is money earned.

Regards,
John M. Ross
Windsor, Nova Scotia.
jrpiano@win.eastlink.ca
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Nereson" <dnereson@dimensional.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, February 18, 2002 4:58 AM
Subject: Re: Yes! We have no spoon benders!


>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <Tvak@AOL.COM>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2002 9:37 AM
> Subject: Yes! We have no spoon benders!
>
>
> > I recently ordered a combination tool spoon bender (among other items)
> from
> > APSCO.   ..........................
> >
> > What do you all think of this?  Am I simply expecting too much personal
> > attention in this day and age?
> >
> > Tom Sivak
> >
>     No, businesses have become worse and worse about customer service.
They
> should call or send a card or e-mail right away if they don't have an item
> in stock, instead of letting you wait the whole time until the shipment
> comes.  I couldn't believe how long Schaff went (25 years) before finally
> publishing a new catalog.  Almost a third of the items in the old catalog
> were discontinued, and for the new stuff, you had to have saved all their
> single-sheet flyers, inserts, updates, etc.
>     But regarding spoon benders, the only one I've found that actually
works
> is the Yamaha type, and even it doesn't work on some types of spoons.
> There's probably no one spoon bender that works on all actions, kinda like
> capstan wrenches -- you need at least 3 or 4.  The most ridiculous,
useless
> "spoon benders" (why they even make them and have them in the catalog is
> beyond me) are the ones intended for spinets.  It's darn near impossible
to
> get the thing onto the spoon, and if you do, you can't bend up because
> you'll hit the bottom of the keybed, and the tool is so flexible you can't
> tell if you're bending it or the spoon.  It's a total rip-off.  But how
> would a beginning tech know that without finding out the hard way?  After
> all, it's in a catalog intended for professionals.  But then they still
> offer key button "tighteners" that swage the wood (compress the fibers
> against the keypin).   And in consoles, you can't bend a spoon towards
you,
> usually, without removing keys, because your hand or the tool just hits
the
> key buttons and that's as far as you can go.   Many times, I remove the
> action bolt nuts, tip the action toward me, then reach down behind with a
> straight damper wire bender and get done faster than fishing for spoons
with
> the spoon bender.
>     There's lotsa stuff about the "big two" supply houses (now one, I
guess,
> but they still have separate catalogs) that irks me no end, but I won't
> start in on 'em with this post.                            --Dave Nereson,
> RPT, Denver
>
>