On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 11:51 PM, Floyd Gadd <fg at floydgadd.com> wrote: > List, > > I usually consider a basic tuning to be a 90 minute call, since in our > Manitoba climate, even the pianos I tune annually seem to need some pitch > adjustment before I can fine tune. Today I ran into an exception--a piano I > had pitch raised and followed up a month later last winter. Today's tuning > took 45 minutes. > > Since the customer rather likes his piano, but his partner is suggesting > they should have a different one, I decided to use my remaining time to do > something about its rather unfortunate state of regulation. I focused on > the first octave above the tenor break (B2-B3), refining the key leveling, > increasing the dip to 10 mm, setting the letoff, adjusting hammer blow to 1 > 3/4 inches by shimming behind the hammer rest rail felt (just the one > octave), taking up lost motion and setting the checking. I didn't get > around to adjusting damper timing. Since the customer left the house > shortly after I started tuning, I called him later, explaining what I'd > done. I let him know that if having that octave out of sync with the rest > of the piano was a problem, I could easily pull the shims and readjust the > capstans to make things more consistent. He was happy, however, to check > out the results of the work, and to consider more work next time. > > Having read Bill Gagnon's article on the full service tuning appointment in > the January journal, and Barbara Richmond's contribution a few months back, > I'm interested to know how others on this list might be facing the task of > bring a piano that is badly out of regulation back to where it needs to be . > . . in 30 minute installments. > > It occurred to me as I struggled to set let-off that a useful "first > installment" in the whole process might be sliding out the let-off rail, > steaming/ironing the punchings, then quickly setting let-off for the whole > scale. I've figured out a method, based on Spurlock's article in the Tech > Exam Source Book, of referencing letoff to the bottom of the string cut, so > that my work won't be undone when I get around to reshaping the hammers. > The only hesitation I have with this approach is the fact that the customer > doesn't see really noticeable improvement in the feel of the piano from this > first installment, and noticeable change is a powerful selling tool for > future work. > > Comments? > > Floyd Gadd > Manitoba Chapter > Having read all of the posts thus far I have to say I fall somewhere in the middle. When I arrive for a first appointment, roughly half the time there are other problems, some notes don't work or don't work correctly, a pedal doesn't work, etc. Unless the problem turns out to be a real big job, I'll usually throw it in with the tuning and not charge extra. During the tuning if there are a few blubbering hammers if they are a good indication that the piano needs regulation, I will leave them and show them to the customer, explaining that they will continue and there will be more to follow until it is regulated. I give all new customers a "free" estimate of any repairs the piano needs, my way of doing some customer education and trying to get them to upgrade their piano a little. I usually am able to schedule something for either a later time or along with the next tuning. So I do give away some work but not to the degree some on this thread do. I have on occasion had situations where it was obvious the child had a great desire to play but the parents had very limited means, I have then stretched my "regular" tuning to include much more serviceing than usual. Mike -- I intend to live forever. So far, so good. Steven Wright Michael Magness Magness Piano Service 608-786-4404 www.IFixPianos.com email mike at ifixpianos.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100122/618c63e3/attachment.htm>
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