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<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>Greg,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>At the risk of being somewhat
cynical, I'd say you've already given enough time unpaid. The very likely
reality here is that no matter what else you do, you will not have a happy
client. You goofed by not checking the piano before tearing in, and by not
confirming the problem with the client ahead. Ooops. We've all done
it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>First, you shouldn't have left the
first time without an "OK" from the client. When you say you'll come back
for free to fix it, you've started on the road to devalued time. But, by
now, the client is likely thinking you were not only trying to pull a fast one,
but that you are also incompetent, no matter what you do. Please don't go
putting on new bass dampers for this client, unless they agree to pay you for
the work. Quit giving away work. Clients do not respect you when you
do, nor do they value you, your time, or your work. When that moment of
discomfort came, instead of asking, "Are you sure it wasn't this way
before......?" It should have been time for a diagnosis and proposed
solution, including cost.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>My two cents,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>William R. Monroe</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Don't think of what you have to do to make your
customer happy, think of what you must do to keep her from becoming an
unhappy customer who is potentially a very damaging liability to your
reputation. One unhappy customer can undo the good created by many happy
customers.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>You might want to bite the bullet and replace the
bass damper felts. If you are getting sympathetic leakage in the bass,
this could solve the problem. The bass damper felt may be overly
dense and not doing a very good job even though they seem to dampen ok when
played as individual notes.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">Hi All,<BR><BR>Well it's deja vu for me. I
thought I'd learned my lesson the last time this happened. I get a call for
a tuning and "pedal repair". When I arrive the damper pedal rod is engaged
but the pedal regulated with so much play as never to reach damper lift.
Easy fix, regulate pedal, achieve damper lift. I then suddenly notice
copious bleedthrough. I point out the "echo" to the customer and say the
dampers are old and misaligned, and another technician must have sacrificed
pedal play for quieting the bleedthrough. I would leave it with pedal play,
but if the "echo" bothered her I would come back free of charge and try to
minimize it.<BR><BR>She does call, and I do return. This time I back the
pedal all the way to where it was when I first met the piano. At this point
I have not touched a single damper head, or damper wire. The damper lift rod
is miles from any damper lever, so all dampers are seated.And still the
massive echo. I neglected to play the piano before regulating the pedal on
my very first visit, so I don't recall if it had the bleedthrough then. But
intellectually I know, tuning the piano as I did, and pedal regulation could
not have caused this pervasive damper bleeding. I try to delicately approach
the issue, essentially inquiring "are you sure this echo wasn't there
before"... "no, I DEFINITELY would have noticed it, I can't even play it"
and the implied "what did you do to my piano!".... <BR>The one previous time
I reached this kind of exchange I stubbornly stuck to my intellectual
conclusion that anything I could have done during tuning would not have
affected the dampers this much, and if the client wants to remedy the ailing
dampers I would be happy to help but they'll have to pay for it. Now I am
hopefully a little wiser, and would like to keep my customers so I said
"don't worry, this is my problem not yours, I'm not done here until the
problem is fixed..."<BR><BR>Three hours later (of second visit to house),
every damper is seated. When I push each string, the damper follows, showing
me that it is bearing against the string, and there is sufficient tension if
the damper head follows. I strengthened each damper spring in the bass and
low tenor for good measure, requiring that I remove the spinnet action,
which is so much fun. I even tried needling a few offensive dampers. This is
a Baldwin Spinnet from the 60s. The dampers are a little compacted, but
nothing spilled on them, and not too hard or ratty. The real killer is that
with a slow chromatic check, no single note rings noticeably (play a note,
press hand against string, no change in echo). Laying a forearm across all
the strings in tenor does not change the echo. Nor a forearm across bass,
unless you really push, and then the echo does die. This for me is to assess
if it is indeed string noise, or soundboard/backscale noise, but its so loud
it must be string noise. If I play a forte f-major in the tenor, and arm
mute it, the echo sings loud. If I play same chord and arm mute the bass,
lower than the notes I played, it does significantly dampen the echo. This
is why I focused primarily on bass dampers. One or two of which I found
mildly offensive, but all at least dampen adequately.<BR><BR>I would like
advice on good upright damping. But also on this customer quandary, when you
reach a juncture where you as the technician feel certain the piano has a
chronic ailment that predated your ever meeting it, and the client feeling
you caused categorical damper failure just by tuning. Of course now, I have
removed the action, and replaced it, and bent many damper wires, so now my
actions really could have "caused" or at least worsened the problem
(although I did so methodically and with the intention of improving the
symptoms) I can no longer say, I never touched the dampers, not my fault.
How much free time to I give here, for a happy customer? How does one
establish professional expertise and trust, without saying "its not my
fault, so not my problem"?<BR><BR><BR>Thank you tuner support
group!<BR><BR>Greg Arnold<BR><SPAN><A
href="http://www.welltemperedtuning.com"
target=_blank>www.welltemperedtuning.com</A></SPAN><BR></DIV><BR>
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