FRUSTRATION,FRUSTRATION,FRUSTRATION

[RicB]

Hi

I cant speak for your present example,  but it brought to mind a really 
nice Knabe 9' rebuild I saw once in Seattle.  Beautiful finish, really 
nice sound.... but the thing played like a mack truck on a cobble street 
road.  I couldnt believe the action when I looked a bit closer at 
things.  I didnt get a chance to talk to the rebuilder, even tho the 
thing was still on the showroom floor.... but perhaps its just that some 
few rebuilders are really good at the instrument... but not so good at 
the user interface...

Cheers
RicB


    I got a call from a very nice lady to tune her early 1900's Steinway
    "O"  
    that she purchased from a local piano dealer about a year ago. It
    needed "a  
    little more" than tuning. The soundboard, pin block, and
    re-stringing were all  
    very satisfactory, but thanks to the neglect and sloppiness of the
    dealer that  
    rebuilt the piano, all of the front and balance rail punchings were
    the  
    ORIGINALS, the hammers were new but most of them were hitting only 2
    out of 3  
    strings with many of the shanks twisted in the wrong direction, the 
    sustaining
    pedal was noisy and binding and never worked right --  even  though
    the store
    sent their technicians a couple of times (the last "technician" 
    told her that
    it was her imagination!), a bass damper sat about 1/2 inch off its 
    strings,
    some dampers hardly moved when the note was played and many had to
    be  regulated
    into the right position, there was a broken jack, a stripped out 
    rep. rail
    hole,  the drop and letoff were way off in many notes, and the 
    string height
    was very uneven for many unisons causing some bad buzzing and  voicing
    problems. How could any dealer in his right mind even THINK of 
    selling a classic,
    fabulous Steinway grand with the action needing hours of  work? Are
    people so
    money hungry that they throw all sense of accomplishment,  artistry,
    and
    perfection out the window? Where is the pride in turning a  classic
    Steinway into a
    dream of an instrument? What this dealer did was like  restoring a
    beautiful
    Rolls Royce to mint condition, but leaving a huge dent in  the
    fender. It makes
    no sense. I wonder how many other technicians have had  similar
    experiences.
    I've seen a lot of wonderful work out there over the years,  work
    that would
    satisfy the most demanding concert pianists, but I've  seen THIS
    sort of thing
    time and time again and it always gets me angry  frustrated. Can
    anyone out
    there relate to this?
     
    Jesse Gitnik
    Since 1980