lazy RPT

[Tvak@aol.com]

My wife's aunt called me and asked me to tune her piano, an Acrosonic.  Last 
time I was at her house I had noticed that there was considerable lost motion 
in the action, so I told her she should tell her tuner about it and have him 
take care of it. Since she is a professional musician, I was sure she would 
feel the difference and appreciate it.

Well, this was about a year ago, so I was curious to see if she had had it 
taken care of, or whether I was going to have to do it.  So I opened it up 
and checked it right away.  

It was gone.  No lost motion.  I played a C major scale starting on middle C 
and it was tight as it could be.  But then I got to G5 and there it was; lost 
motion on all the keys from G5 up.  So I checked downward and found the lost 
motion started again at the tenor/bass break and went all the way down to the 
bottom.  And not just a little bit of lost motion, either.  Most keys took 2 
turns of the capstan wrench.

So I asked her, "Did you ask your tuner to take care of the lost motion?"  
And she replied, "Yes.  He took care of it last time he was here, but he 
didn't seem too happy about it."  

It seemed obvious to me that he only did the middle register.  He was her 
tuner for over 15 years.  It amazes me that this guy cared so little for his 
faithful client.  He must have been on a tight schedule that day, but 
still...is that an excuse?

His card was in the piano with the RPT logo.

The bad news is: this is just another piano I'll have to tune for free for 
the rest of my life.

Tom Sivak