[pianotech] Commercial value vs. sentimental value

[Ron Nossaman]

Ken & Pat Gerler wrote:
> As a counter to it being "bad" technicians that do little to make the 
> piano better, it is the "customers" looking for a "cheap" job rather 
> than a "quality" job. I have two instruments in St. Louis that I can 
> comment on.

The Walmart marketing model has taught us well.

As to rebuilding, why is it that refinishing is always right 
at the top of the list, since it has virtually nothing to do 
with rebuilding the instrument? "Furniture" ought to be 
declared the "F" word for piano technicians.

Years back, I had a customer looking for a piano. He wanted a 
Steinway, naturally, but didn't like the prices quoted for new 
or competently rebuilt instruments, so he shopped around. He 
called me one day to schedule a tuning. He'd bought a rebuilt 
Steinway, and it was to be delivered in a couple of days. I 
told him I'd like to see the piano before the delivery people 
got away. He couldn't imagine why, so I told him.

He called me just AFTER the delivery truck had left instead of 
when it arrived, as I'd asked. I took him on a tour of the 
piano, pointing out every single thing I'd warned him would be 
there. It was refinished, reasonably well, with all the brass 
polished. That's the good part. It had new keytops, not filed 
to fit the keys, so they rubbed together. The worn out 
original bushings helped some in that area. New strings, 
original pinblock with at least 4/0 pins, cracked bridge cap, 
original concave crowned soundboard, badly shimmed, original 
action with new hammers. The dampers didn't work at all well, 
and it was badly out of regulation. Standing back and looking 
at it, it gleamed all nice and shiny, but most of what should 
have been done in a real rebuild, to actually improve the 
performance of the instrument, wasn't.

I've seen sooooooooo many of these through the years, usually 
after someone has gotten themselves a bargain and called me to 
come make it work for them. It couldn't take much, right? 
After all, most of the work is already done. Just needs some 
tweaking and buffing.

Ron N