Watched 60 minutes last night, and the subject was on Chinese manufactureres. E.G. golf equipment which carried popular american names, such as" Calaway." Clubs and bags were made to look very much like the name suggested, but the quality was missing. A Great Big Bertha driver was cut open and found to be nothing like its namesake made in the US. Of course it sold for a fraction of the price. I think the product was called conterfeit manufacture. I have personally encountered a very nice looking piano locally, which seemed to need much service. Later I got the impression that it had not been preserviced very well by the dealer who sold it, but I couldn't tell the retail customer that. Things were out of " whack," and I didn't know how much work it would take to put it into " whack ".( Not sure what whack means.) Wondering if I should have alerted the customer to the responsibility of the dealer to see that the piano was put into reasonable playing condition, and should still do it. I tried to get the customer to tell me who the dealer was, but wasn't successful, so it's possible that the piano was purchased off the back of a truck. NAAHH!!! Also, wondering if the quality isn't there, what is in store for this piano, down the road. By lack of quality, I'm guessing that properly dried wood may not have been used, etc. etc. Questions ??????????? Carl / Winnipeg Piannaman@aol.com wrote: > List, > > I've been negligent at perusing the contributions to this list of late, mostly because I've been too busy working. While I've had the opportunity to work on many Seilers, Kawais, M and Hs and Steinways, some of this work has been on cheapo Chinese built pianos. The no-name(who WOULD put a name on this thang?) upright unit I worked on yesterday looked like a piano. It came apart like a piano. There the similarity to a piano ends. I think I've seen an instrument like this with a Niemeyer decal on the front. > > It sounded miserably whiny, as though the strings were made of bailing wire. The key bushings were sloppily installed, the punchings were made out of this gray fuzz that is already disintegrating despite the fact that it is a new piano. The keypins were installed at all kinds of angles. Most of the keys were binding. The balance rail had swollen causing the jacks to lift all of the hammers a couple of centimeters off the rail. The let-off ranged from an inch in the bass to blocking against the string in the middle of the piano. Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble...PSO would be too kind a way to describe this piano. It made me nostalgic for Pearl Rivers, which have become qite acceptable, especially in comparison to this animal. > > And if you ever work on a Dongbei piano--could be Story and Clark, Weber, or any of a number of other decals--be careful when easing the keys. The new Weber I serviced last week had keys that felt like chewing gum when reamed. > > Where's my flame thrower? > > Dave Stahl
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