Winter & Co. .... Blahhh

[Farrell]

Hey, I've got all your Winter spinets beat hands down! Went to tune a 1950s Janssen 37" console (with the droopy keys) yesterday. The guy said it had been 15 years since the last tuning (sounded more like 50 years) and the bass sounded "wet". Opened up the top and saw that the pinblock had separated from the back posts more than 1/4". It was almost up to pitch at the far bass and treble, but 1/2 note flat in middle. I told him to junk it. He told me he will (actually he said he will sell it!), but his little girl takes lessons and he needed to get this thing working at least for a while - just long enough to see if she will take to the piano. 

I looked at the bass bridge - falling off - bridge had moved half way off the apron. He asked me to fix it. I did - goobered thick super glue, pulled out strings to pull bridge body off apron and let glue back there, hit it with kicker, and bass sounded......well, not "wet" anymore. Well at least it sounded that way to me. He listened to it and thought it sounded so darn good that it didn't even need a tuning! I said &#%$ing fine, and collected my minimum service fee. 

I did say to him that I hear from many teachers that a youngster playing on such a piano can be very quickly discouraged.

Some people.   :-(

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joe And Penny Goss" <imatunr@srvinet.com>
To: "Z! Reinhardt" <diskladame@provide.net>; "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2002 10:25 PM
Subject: Re: Winter & Co. .... Blahhh


Hi Zi, 
Tuned one of those Alcoa types today!
Really not that bad.
 I had tuned it 6 months earlier for a store and while the bass was 5 cents low and the treble 3 to 5 cents high the tuning came out quite well. The piano now resides in a church that has constant temp control and is in a room away from the direct sun.
Now the other Winter piano that I will do work on, at another store is quite another story.
Bass strings breaking in the middle due to rodents and the hammers worn out, loose bridge pins as well as tuning pins. The case looks like it has been in a war zone.
Joe Goss
imatunr@srvinet.com
www.mothergoosetools.com
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Z! Reinhardt 
  To: Alan R. Barnard ; Pianotech 
  Sent: Monday, October 21, 2002 6:30 PM
  Subject: Re: Winter & Co. .... Blahhh


  Now try tuning one with an aluminum plate.  Talk about instability ...!  But hey -- they were light enough for ordinary people (as opposed to piano movers) to push around to their liking.

  (I'll leave it to your collective imaginations where some of these may have ended up after a good push.)

  Z! Reinhardt  RPT
  Ann Arbor  MI
  diskladame@provide.net


  ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Alan R. Barnard 
    To: pianotech@ptg.org 
    Sent: Monday, October 21, 2002 8:06 PM
    Subject: Winter & Co. .... Blahhh


    Are all Winter & Co. pianos mucho crappy or just the ones I tune? Wound bichords up to G#36 (5 notes on the tenor bridge). Wild strings everywhere. Whiny trichords. Thumpy, wumpy lowest octave. Unstable as all get-out for about 3 notes either side of the tenor-treble break...

    Seems like a lot of people, over the years, went shopping for a piano but were tricked by the nice-looking furniture!

    Of course, today's wasn't really a completely fair example ... hadn't been tuned since 1985!

    Oh, and another plug for Sanderson Pitch Correction -- this sucker was all over the place from 12 to 80 cents flat. Adjusted my percentages about every 6 to 12 notes. Ended up reaaaaaaal close. It always amazes me how well it works!

    Alan Barnard
    Raisin' Cain (and pitch) in Salem, MO