<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>WOW!
<BR>
<BR>Thanks for all the replies, folks. It's nice to know how willing people are
<BR>to help with ideas and opinions. I know I may come off at times like a "Mr.
<BR>know-it-all" but really, I only have superficial knowledge and experience
<BR>with such things as manufacturing concerns, scale design, etc. However, I
<BR>have been around for quite a while and have heard and seen a lot.
<BR>
<BR>One thing I noticed early on in my career as a piano technician was that you
<BR>can often expect contradictory opinions on virtually any subject. A couple
<BR>of things that were new to me and which I had not considered were counter
<BR>bearing angles and agraffe damage. Also, the use of the damper pedal as a
<BR>factor in string breakage was something I had not really heard of before.
<BR>
<BR>It seems obvious to me that simply weaving some extra and tighter string
<BR>braid would keep strings from flying out. Some of the suggestions about
<BR>other ways to restrain the strings seemed a bit surprising. I had always
<BR>thought of string braid as being principally a mute but I can see that it
<BR>could also prevent shooting strings.
<BR>
<BR>I agree that the story is comical, at least at first thought but if someone
<BR>were to be injured, it could quickly turn to a grim scenario. Another factor
<BR>that I did not bring up was that I tried the best I could to get this church
<BR>*not* to buy a piano from the particular dealer in question. My opinion of
<BR>Young Chang pianos completely aside, the reputation of the dealer as being
<BR>the worst of the worst has a lot to do with whether buying any instrument at
<BR>all from that source would be advisable.
<BR>
<BR>When I visited the dealer I usually do work for, I told him of the problem
<BR>just in case the church decides to trade the piano in. This problem should
<BR>definitely be known. I can see that if the church does buy a new piano, it
<BR>should be specially prepared in order to minimize the possibility of the
<BR>problem occurring in a completely different instrument. Still, the image of
<BR>a piano coming from *that* dealer now firing scuds at the congregation is
<BR>really funny. They got their "good deal" and now they're paying the price
<BR>for it.
<BR>
<BR>I have not contacted Young Chang yet, I haven't been asked to do so. The
<BR>young lady pianist says she wants to talk to the pastor and the dealer. She
<BR>doesn't buy my explanation. She thinks I "tightened the strings too much".
<BR>She said she saw me working once and it looked to her that I was "tightening
<BR>everything really hard".
<BR>
<BR>They also haven't paid the bill for the tuning that I did now 30 days ago
<BR>even though they had always been prompt before, sometimes even paying when I
<BR>completed the job that day. When I left the bill on the desk, I saw my last
<BR>invoice sitting there marked, "Hold until next bill." Now, there is also a
<BR>bill for replacing two more strings and another string is on order.
<BR>Yesterday having been Sunday, I can fully imagine that the other string of
<BR>the unison that just broke will have broken too. I did tell the girl that it
<BR>was likely. She asked why and I again explained to her that it is the way
<BR>the piano is played and her reply was that she had a hard time accepting that.
<BR>
<BR>So, that is where it stands now. If they call someone else, I may not be
<BR>troubled by the problem anymore but I can also see that I may be the one whom
<BR>everyone blames for the problem. The dealer is certainly capable of that.
<BR>That *unequal* temperament I tune caused the problem, he might say and you
<BR>can be sure that it will be believed.
<BR>
<BR>I'll let you all know what transpires.
<BR>
<BR>Bill Bremmer RPT
<BR>Madison, Wisconsin</FONT></HTML>