Client Care and Spinnet Dampers: HELP!

[John Formsma]

Greg,

Too bad you did anything to the dampers. Otherwise, you could have
gotten paid for the work you'll have to do now. I guess you'll know
next time never to say you'll come back to do something for free
unless you were the one who actually caused it.

Does this piano have a pedal that lifts only the bass dampers? It
might need to be adjusted. But you said the dampers follow strings.

Other than that, you might lightly sand some dampers with an emery
board, or do something to remove any crust that has developed over the
years.

I wouldn't replace any dampers for free, that's for sure.

Hey, at least you're learning. We've all been there at one time. I
probably more than most actually. :-)

JF

On 6/12/07, Geoffrey Arnold <welltemperedtuning at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> Hi All,
>
> Well it's deja vu for me. I thought I'd learned my lesson the last time this
> happened. I get a call for a tuning and "pedal repair". When I arrive the
> damper pedal rod is engaged but the pedal regulated with so much play as
> never to reach damper lift. Easy fix, regulate pedal, achieve damper lift. I
> then suddenly notice copious bleedthrough. I point out the "echo" to the
> customer and say the dampers are old and misaligned, and another technician
> must have sacrificed pedal play for quieting the bleedthrough. I would leave
> it with pedal play, but if the "echo" bothered her I would come back free of
> charge and try to minimize it.
>
> She does call, and I do return. This time I back the pedal all the way to
> where it was when I first met the piano. At this point I have not touched a
> single damper head, or damper wire. The damper lift rod is miles from any
> damper lever, so all dampers are seated.And still the massive echo. I
> neglected to play the piano before regulating the pedal on my very first
> visit, so I don't recall if it had the bleedthrough then. But intellectually
> I know, tuning the piano as I did, and pedal regulation could not have
> caused this pervasive damper bleeding. I try to delicately approach the
> issue, essentially inquiring "are you sure this echo wasn't there before"...
> "no, I DEFINITELY would have noticed it, I can't even play it" and the
> implied "what did you do to my piano!"....
> The one previous time I reached this kind of exchange I stubbornly stuck to
> my intellectual conclusion that anything I could have done during tuning
> would not have affected the dampers this much, and if the client wants to
> remedy the ailing dampers I would be happy to help but they'll have to pay
> for it. Now I am hopefully a little wiser, and would like to keep my
> customers so I said "don't worry, this is my problem not yours, I'm not done
> here until the problem is fixed..."
>
> Three hours later (of second visit to house), every damper is seated. When I
> push each string, the damper follows, showing me that it is bearing against
> the string, and there is sufficient tension if the damper head follows. I
> strengthened each damper spring in the bass and low tenor for good measure,
> requiring that I remove the spinnet action, which is so much fun. I even
> tried needling a few offensive dampers. This is a Baldwin Spinnet from the
> 60s. The dampers are a little compacted, but nothing spilled on them, and
> not too hard or ratty. The real killer is that with a slow chromatic check,
> no single note rings noticeably (play a note, press hand against string, no
> change in echo). Laying a forearm across all the strings in tenor does not
> change the echo. Nor a forearm across bass, unless you really push, and then
> the echo does die. This for me is to assess if it is indeed string noise, or
> soundboard/backscale noise, but its so loud it must be string noise. If I
> play a forte f-major in the tenor, and arm mute it, the echo sings loud. If
> I play same chord and arm mute the bass, lower than the notes I played, it
> does significantly dampen the echo. This is why I focused primarily on bass
> dampers. One or two of which I found mildly offensive, but all at least
> dampen adequately.
>
> I would like advice on good upright damping. But also on this customer
> quandary, when you reach a juncture where you as the technician feel certain
> the piano has a chronic ailment that predated your ever meeting it, and the
> client feeling you caused categorical damper failure just by tuning. Of
> course now, I have removed the action, and replaced it, and bent many damper
> wires, so now my actions really could have "caused" or at least worsened the
> problem (although I did so methodically and with the intention of improving
> the symptoms) I can no longer say, I never touched the dampers, not my
> fault. How much free time to I give here, for a happy customer? How does one
> establish professional expertise and trust, without saying "its not my
> fault, so not my problem"?
>
>
> Thank you tuner support group!
>
> Greg Arnold
> www.welltemperedtuning.com
>
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