Michelle, <br><br>I, like a lot of the "long time" tuners who spent most of their early career in smaller, rural type of areas, made a large percentage of my income working on these "beasties". We learn shortcuts of various kinds, down & dirty as someone said, but would at least make the instrument play. We didn't like it but didn't have a whole lot of choice if we wanted to make a living. Most of my time there I had a full-size van (when gas was a LOT cheaper) <grin> and carried enough spare parts & tools in it to do almost anything short of a major restoration job. I even carried a tilter. Got a few wobbly hammers that are chewing up the hammer felt? Point it out to the customer, get their approval, and replace them. Same with those plastic elbows that break so often. Get some snap-on types and replace them. Etc., etc. When the customer sees that some of the problems are going to continue and would ultimately be cheaper to just go ahead and replace the set all at once, by planning ahead they can usually come up with the money & then you have a fairly good paying job there. Some time in the future, maybe replace all the flanges. Etc., etc. You get the idea. Taking up a lot of lost motion usually doesn't take long and it can make a large difference in how the piano feels. Point out the difficulty a child could be having playing under those conditions compared to what he/she probably plays on at their teacher's house. <br>
<br>Before I moved to Houston for the university job, a large part of my career was spent in San Angelo, TX. I also had a fairly large area surrounding it that I serviced. I always tried to get whoever called to line up a whole days work before I made the trip. In several towns I had a piano teacher, church music director, school music teacher, etc. do it. Most of them got to the point where they'd line up 4-6 pianos before they even called me. In one town, Alpine, TX, I had a school music teacher that would put an ad in the local paper 2-3 weeks ahead and I'd usually have enough work that I could stay 5-7 days working all day. Mostly tunings but always "some" repair. Broken strings, etc. That kind of arrangement made it easier for me and cheaper on them because I could divide the extra mileage & motel charge among the customers.<br>
<br>One thing that finally started getting me better quality pianos, besides always trying to do good work, was when I started tuning regularly for the San Angeo Symphony. I worked out a deal with them for reduced rates that when they had a guest pianist perform, they always put a "blurb" on the bottom of the page containing the program. Something like "Pianos tuned & maintained by Avery Todd." Getting the university contract also helped. <br>
<br>Thankfully, I've reached an age and a point in my career where I will usually refer any of those 'clunker' calls to someone I trust who's trying to make a full-time living and wants the work. <br><br>Sorry about the length of this but I just wanted to chime in with my .02 worth. <br>
<br>Avery Todd<br>Houston, TX<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Apr 10, 2008 at 8:40 AM, Barbara Richmond <<a href="mailto:piano57@comcast.net">piano57@comcast.net</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div vlink="#000000" link="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff" lang="EN-US">
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Michelle,</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Perhaps you could become a master of "quick &
dirty" repairs--I mean that in a good way! For example, the split
bridge repair we saw recently with the rod replacing the bridge
pins. </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">When I was faced with school pianos that needed "so
much," I decided on a plan of attack--not doing everything they needed at
once, but taking care of issues gradually. It's sort of hard sometimes to
think and work with that system, but it can be done.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Barbara Richmond, RPT</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">near Peoria, IL</font></div>
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px;"><div class="Ih2E3d">
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">----- Original Message ----- </div>
<div style="background: rgb(228, 228, 228) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
<b>From:</b>
<a title="michelle@smithpianoservice.com" href="mailto:michelle@smithpianoservice.com" target="_blank">Michelle Smith</a> </div>
</div><div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><b>To:</b> <a title="pianotech@ptg.org" href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org" target="_blank">'Pianotech List'</a> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, April 10, 2008 8:09
AM</div>
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><b>Subject:</b> RE: Clunker pianos - what do you
do?</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Thanks
to everyone who has responded to my e-mail. You're really helping me
sort out my thoughts on this issue.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">As
Paul stated, sometimes there is still life in these pianos but very often the
owner is expecting a miracle. I guess it comes from our society of
instant gratification. The piano tuner is supposed to make the piano
work again just like the appliance repairman makes the dishwasher work
again. Instead I sometimes have to be the bearer of bad news.
Repairs are costly and many people here just can't afford it. I want
people to be happy and instead we both get frustrated.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Concerning
passing these pianos off to less experienced techs….I'm it! Ha Ha
Ha! The older gentleman who owns the local music shop and tunes pianos
can't see well enough to do the repairs so he's passing ALL of his repair work
to me. Most Austin techs are unwilling to make the drive so if I don't
fix them they won't get fixed. Ironically, this is why I got into this
business in the first place. I saw a need in our community and I jumped
in. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Thanks
to everyone for listening to my mental wanderings.
</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Have
a super Thursday!</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Michelle</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"> </span></p>
<div>
<p><br><span><div class="Ih2E3d">This is
a perfect opportunity to involve less experienced technicians, associates,
those who are just beginning, to take on some of these jobs in order to learn
the craft. As well, in some instances, as we have here in Chicago, some of
these pianos are marginally enough useful to pass on by donation to those who
can't afford a piano. We started <i>A Gift of PIanos</i> about 9 years ago,
and now the Chicago chapter of the PTG runs the program.
<br><br><br><br></div>Paul</span></p></div>
<div>
<p style="margin-top: 7.5pt;"> </p></div></div></blockquote></div>
</blockquote></div><br>