Clunker pianos - what do you do?

[Rob Mitchell]

Michelle,

 

I find myself doing both extremes of the spectrum.  I have one gentleman
that had me do a purchase consultation for an old Waters upright he was
interested in.  Though mechanically sound, I gave him a list of things the
piano would probably need.  He ended up getting the piano for free and I got
quite a bit of work through new keytops, key bushings, bass string cleaning,
hammer filing and damper alignment.

 

At the other extreme (just yesterday) I had to tell a new customer that his
100 yo Decker and Bros. was untunable and, in my opinion, wasn't even worth
fixing.  He already had a pretty good idea that the piano was going to be a
problem and I think he appreciated that I was straightforward with him.
None the less, it is hard telling a customer that I'm not going to be able
to help them.  

 

Rob

 

Mitchell Piano Service

www.mitchellpianoservice.com 

(415) 994-1030

  _____  

From: Michelle Smith [mailto:michelle at smithpianoservice.com] 
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2008 6:09 AM
To: 'Pianotech List'
Subject: RE: Clunker pianos - what do you do?

 

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my e-mail.  You're really helping me
sort out my thoughts on this issue.

 

As Paul stated, sometimes there is still life in these pianos but very often
the owner is expecting a miracle.  I guess it comes from our society of
instant gratification.  The piano tuner is supposed to make the piano work
again just like the appliance repairman makes the dishwasher work again.
Instead I sometimes have to be the bearer of bad news.  Repairs are costly
and many people here just can't afford it.  I want people to be happy and
instead we both get frustrated.

 

Concerning passing these pianos off to less experienced techs..I'm it!   Ha
Ha Ha!  The older gentleman who owns the local music shop and tunes pianos
can't see well enough to do the repairs so he's passing ALL of his repair
work to me.  Most Austin techs are unwilling to make the drive so if I don't
fix them they won't get fixed.  Ironically, this is why I got into this
business in the first place.  I saw a need in our community and I jumped in.


 

Thanks to everyone for listening to my mental wanderings.  

 

Have a super Thursday!

 

Michelle

 


This is a perfect opportunity to involve less experienced technicians,
associates, those who are just beginning, to take on some of these jobs in
order to learn the craft. As well, in some instances, as we have here in
Chicago, some of these pianos are marginally enough useful to pass on by
donation to those who can't afford a piano. We started A Gift of PIanos
about 9 years ago, and now the Chicago chapter of the PTG runs the program. 



Paul

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20080410/e4aa95a2/attachment.html