The whole job takes me about 3 hours tops, plus the time it takes to get it back and reinstalled.I do an average of 2 per week, and sometimes double that. Terry Peterson <BLOCKQUOTE style='PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #A0C6E5 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px'><font style='FONT-SIZE:11px;FONT-FAMILY:tahoma,sans-serif'><hr color=#A0C6E5 size=1> From: <i>David Nereson <dnereson@4dv.net></i><br>Reply-To: <i>dnereson@4dv.net, Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org></i><br>To: <i>Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org></i><br>Subject: <i>Re: Dremmels on hammers was RE: mini belt sander for filing hammers</i><br>Date: <i>Fri, 14 Oct 2005 01:41:40 -0600</i><br>pianolover 88 wrote:<br><br>><<Oh I know, if they're this bad, they should get new hammers, but <br>>most people don't want to spend $500 or even $250 on their old <br>>upright, Hamilton studio, or Wurlitzer console. >><br>><br>>You only charge the above rates for hanging NEW hammers???? I get <br>>$275 for filing & reshaping alone! OF course that includes <br>>re-aligning hammers to strings and resetting blow & letoff, and an <br>>interior cleaning as well.<br>><br>>Terry Peterson<br>><br>><br>><br>><br> So that's not just filing & reshaping ALONE. No, the filing & reshaping only takes an hour and a half, usually. Which should come out to about $75 at $50 an hour, or $90 at $60/hr. Owners of fine grands and pro's and semi-pro's might pay higher labor rates, but not the soccer moms and middle-income people for whom piano lessons and piano ownership are the first things to go when budgets get tight. But I digressed. Sometimes the hammers need filing either 'cause they're badly worn or because it would improve the tone, but the rest of the regulation is still quite good. But you file, and now the blow distance and let-off are too wide, so you have to do a partial regulation as well. Or a complete regulation. Or the piano's dirty and needs cleaning. That's what brings it up to $250 or $500. That would be more like the filing & reshaping plus 2,3,4 hours of regulating. And to remove the action & keys and do a good vacuuming (might as well tighten plate screws, hardware, trapwork while you've got things apart) would add another hour or so. No, new hammers should theoretically cost more like $1000 ($200 for the hammers plus $200 for a 100% mark up --some call it a 50% mark-up; 4 to 6 hours' labor to install, depending on if you buy pre-bored, and whether you replace shanks or not -- I'm talking verticals, mostly -- and whether you just "throw on a cheap set 'cause it's a cheap little console" or if you're doing a top-level job on a high-quality piano -- could end up being 8 hours' labor just to install, action not even back in the piano yet; and after pre-filing, aligning to strings, mating to strings, and regulating and voicing, well, maybe we're approaching $1500 now). People start asking if they could just buy a better used piano for that price. And sometimes (rarely) they could.<br> I find that the middle-income piano owners who would pay $275 for just filing and a little regulating are few and far between. They think that should pay for a complete reconditioning. When I say, "No, a complete reconditioning would be more like $500, or $1000 on a very old piano...," that's when I get the "Oh, we're not concert artists. We just want it to work ... besides, Katie's just beginning, anyhow." --David Nereson, RPT<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives<br></font></BLOCKQUOTE>
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