[pianotech] Rear and front legs and piano tech literature

[lewis Newman]

Hi Andreas,

I've got that book.
I definitely agree that it could go into more detail, it's pretty vague at times, and misses out quite a few important points. If you were trying to use it as a guide to rebuilding/regulating etc without knowing anything else, it would be very difficult! 
However, i quite liked it, and it was interesting, although admittedly slightly basic. 

I didn't really have any problems with the translation though, i just thought it was a bit pricey...I actually bought both of the books before knowing the cost, but sent the other one back when i saw it came to about £200!!-It might be cheaper now though i guess/(hope).


Lewis.




________________________________
 From: Andreas Risberg <garheimer at hotmail.com>
To: pianotech at ptg.org 
Sent: Monday, 23 January 2012, 20:41
Subject: [pianotech] Rear and front legs and piano tech literature
 

 
Dear list,




I remember reading recommendations on literature a few weeks back and I think I have the right to warn everybody about 'Upright and Grand Piano Repair'
by Carl-Johan Forss, since I translated the book.


This is me defending a job I was always unhappy with, but I've wanted to get this off my chest for a few years. Don't read unless you have nothing better to do! I apologize in advance for the negativity.


The norwegian original is full of factual errors and misconceptions, the english translation quite a bit less so. The translation itself is sloppy and hasty, I had to spend the majority of the time double-checking every fact, figuring out what generic product might be the equivalent of a nongeneric product referred to, or simply trying to understand what the author intended to write. Rather than putting beautiful sentences together. I wouldn't even call it a translation. A revision, perhaps. The whole time the people at Edition Bochinsky were trying to rush me to work faster and faster even though they knew i was working close to 19 hours a day, every day of the week for three months. "We have to have the book finished and printed before MusikMesse in Frankfurt!" The heavy use of 'shift' instead of 'replace' in the book came from an elderly very nice NY piano technician whom I heard at a lecture in Sweden. He used the word often and when I asked him
 afterwards he simply said that "you shift the tires on your car rather than you replace the tires". When I discovered towards the end of the translation that I had misunderstood the way he used the term, the publisher wasn't interested in letting me do a second run through to correct or improve the language. "Only misspelling, any rewriting might affect the layout and that would delay the book!"


The book tries to cover everything and I think isn't detailed or close up enough. Every part of the book needs complementary literature or the guide of a good teacher, someone who can spot what is missing and fill in. An experienced teacher who is confident enough to say that "this fact is wrong" or that "this isn't the best way to do this." The book is full of solutions and methods that I was trained to use when I studied for Mr. Forss. Many of these practices I today find awkward and backwards and don't use anymore.


The book might work as skeleton or a framework for what one needs to know. I would only recommend the book to a person bent on collecting technical literature but prepared to buy several books on the same topic/topics.


Edition Bochinsky, PPV Medien and their staff were unsympathetic and unpleasant to have to do with and I ended our collaboration after they tried to make me sign a slave contract for a second book even worse than the contract for the first book. Ca 4 USD per hour. :P   I have no regrets speaking my mind. I'm sorry that they're often the best alternative if you want to buy serious technical literature.






To Jim,


When driving a car I think of myself facing the same direction as the car. I think of the mirror-pair legs as the hind legs and the remaining leg, the one you're missing, as the front leg. (The leg the piano is missing, I hope you are well and that your legs are intact.)




Take care, everyone! /Andreas







Jim wrote:


Hi Everyone, 

Please double check my observation here: 

  http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5391413/yamaha.jpg 

This Yamaha GC1 is missing a leg. The two here appear
to be the mirror-pair front legs. So I need to order the rear one. 

I have not been to the site yet, but they want to be able
to just quote price for now because there are movers involved. 

Thanks, 

Jim 
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