---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment At 07:54 PM 12/13/2005 -0500, you wrote: >Oh I wish there were some standards for the "rebuilt" piano. > >I know this has been covered before, but I just got slapped in the face >with it today and it is so fresh in my mind. I can't resist. Delete now if >you prefer. > >Appointment to tune an "old" piano out in the country - I figured either >an old upright or a 1940s Acrosonic spinet. > >Wrong. About a 1910 Chickering 5' 8" grand. Just rebuilt about 6 years >ago. Family heirloom. > >Very nice new million-dollar-plus home. Nobody plays the piano. They are >hiring a college student pianist to play for an upcoming party. > >"Rebuild" consisted of the all-too-common minimum - case refinish, plate >refinish, new strings (wound tricords and all), new tuning pins (various >heights and many loose string coils - and the damn becket end sticking out >a half inch), new damper felt (twice as wide as the damper heads, of >course), new hammers (at every angle under the sun) and new keytops. >That's it. Nothing else. > >The keytops weren't too bad. > >The action had not been regulated. New hammers, and not regulated. >Original key bushings so worn that they allow keys to bang into one >another. Key level all over the place. All original front rail paper and >felt punchings (no doubt center rail also)! Original worn out backchecks >(yup, and new hammers). Original shank/flange/knuckles - knuckles are like >little squares (let-off is definitely an "event"). Soundboard cracked to >smithereenes. Original cracked bridge cap with original pins. This piano >is almost completely devoid of sound - it is soooooo quiet. Talk about a >killer octave - this thing has a killer keyboard - 88 of 'em. The entire >high treble section hasn't one string that rings - the best ones sound >like a little electric wire shorting out - zszszszsszszszszt! The action >is as slow and mushy and heavy as any trash action I have run across. > >I asked the lady if the rebuilder talked to her about rebuild task options >- she said no - she just told the guy to do everything that it needed. She >paid $7K - a little high for the work done - but that's not the point. The >lady wanted a piano that worked well. She got a decent-looking 600 lb. cow pie. > >I didn't say anything else to her. But I sure wanted to. Is there some way >to tell her what a crap piano she has? > >Then I went to a funeral home in a poor neighborhood of Tampa. Tuned a >typical crap little 1960s Aeolian spinet - fair bit of wear, about a dozen >universal bass strings, etc., etc. With absolutely no exaggeration, that >Aeolian spinet was easily more than ten times the musical instrument than >the Chickering grand. The spinet played way better, it sounded way better, >it was 10 times louder, the treble actually rang a little. Think about it. >That is amazing. > >If I ever service that grand again I'm going to bring my Lowell gauge and >crown-measuring string and try to figure out how a piano could possibly >sound that bad. > >Sorry. End of rant. I was just so blown away by the crap work done on the >grand and this contrast between the two pianos. > >Terry Farrell ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/30/fc/1c/9f/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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