BAD, BADD, PIANO

[Richard Gullion]

Its better to tell them up front the piano needs help before you can tune 
it. Its their call from then. Sometimes its best to walk away!

>From: "Shawn Brock" <shawnbrock at fuse.net>
>Reply-To: Pianotech List <pianotech at ptg.org>
>To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
>Subject: BAD, BADD, PIANO
>Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 13:22:00 -0400
>
>Good people,
>I'm hopeing someone can giv my novice behind some advice.  Yesterday I went 
>to service a piano for a new customer.  I was told it was an old Upright 
>from the STAR PIANO COMPANY.  Whin I arrived (got the Library of Congress 
>off the top of the damn thing) opened her up to hav a look, or in my case a 
>feel.  The first thing I saw was the hammer felt was split on probably half 
>of the hammers.  On some it had separated from the molding.  I madee 
>decision the piano could not be properly voiced.  The next thing was the 
>strings.  They were corroded with rust.  So I was afraid to bring the piano 
>up to pitch.  The last thing was the tuning pins, they were so loose I 
>could not believe it.  I made statements to the man of the house about all 
>of these problems.  He told me "do the best you can with it"  So, I tuned.  
>Was the tuning good?  No way!  But it was better than what they had.  I 
>tuned the temperament three times.  It seemed the piano was just going flat 
>each time.  After about 2 hours I stood up and said, this is all I can do 
>with it.  You might want to think about a new piano.  Yes yes we are he 
>tells me.  We know this one is about gone.  I tell the old boy, theirs no 
>about to it.  It is!  I collected my money, and out the door I went.  I 
>left my card with them, and stated to giv me a call if they needed anyone 
>to help them find a new piano, or someone to look at a piano for them.  
>After getting home some 8 hours later I got a call from the man of the 
>house.  He told me that now the piano sounded worse than it did before it 
>was tuned.  What do you all think of that?  Should I go back and try it 
>again free of charge?  Should I forget about it?  I should have never taken 
>the job in the first place right?  Well I have a driver to pay, I came 25 
>miles out of my way, I have told them i just dont know how this will work 
>out.  The piano has a lot of problems.  So I did the job...  And now...
>Shawn Brock
>Cincinnati Sound Lab
>130 East Sixth Street
>Cincinnati Oh.
>45202
>Phone: 513-349-8541
>Web Site:
>www.cincysoundlab.com

_________________________________________________________________
Buy what you want when you want it on Sympatico / MSN Shopping 
http://shopping.sympatico.msn.ca/content/shp/?ctId=2,ptnrid=176,ptnrdata=081805