Wim - Excellent suggestions as to things to consider. The symptoms of the potential problem areas were not evident. As far as action centers, operating the left pedal quickly several times resulted in no hammers hanging up. Running my thumbnail back and forth across the tops of the hammer moldings revealed no wobbly hammers. Striking heavy chords with the dampers raised, then releasing the dampers quickly resulted in a quick cut off of sound. I did check the bridges and there were no pins loose to the point where they had shifted. Likewise, there were no rows of tuning pins with unusually loose pins revealing a crack in between a row of pinholes. As far as breaking strings while repinning, I just install a new string and don't charge (unless it's a pitchup and I've advised the customer of the hazard of raising the pitch and explained the potential cost of string replacement ahead of time). Granted, unless my mind is drifting and I'm on the wrong pin (which has happened), it's the string that broke, not me that broke it, but I find it easier just to put on a new string, and avoid having the customer thinking I'm trying to pull a fast one. I guess my philosophy on what repairs to recommend, and what repairs are not needed is to keep in mind the concept of diminishing returns. Is the repair going to produce an actual and noticeable change for the owner, or is it such a trifling improvement in performance that no change whatsoever will be noticed? All the repairs I suggested for this piano were badly needed. If one starts listing all the work that could possibly be done, whether or not it's actually needed, one is padding the bill. For this piano, if I take on the job, it's already going to cost more by far than what the commercial value of the piano is. She knows what I think the piano would bring on the open market ( I told her) and although she would never consider selling it, she will take a look at what the same amount of money could buy new. I guess at this point, the ball is in her court. I've already read your later post concerning badly done "restorations" and I couldn't agree more with your feelings in that regard. I have seen far to many crappy "rebuilds" out in the field, which do damage to the public image of what piano restoration is all about. I don't believe, however, that a piano needs to be "gutted," as you mentioned, in order for a restoration to turn out well. Some times, leaving well enough alone is the wisest course of action. But that's just my thinking. Chuck -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090411/64dd4af7/attachment.html>
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