[CAUT] durability (was funding)

[Elwood Doss]

Yes, yes, yes...how about Kansas City since I'm planning to attend!

Joy!

Elwood

 

Elwood Doss, Jr., M.M.E., RPT

Piano Technician/Technical Director

Department of Music

145 Fine Arts Building

The University of Tennessee at Martin

Martin, TN  38238

731/881-1852

FAX: 731/881-7415

HOME: 731/587-5700

________________________________

From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Bdshull at aol.com
Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2006 1:00 AM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] durability (was funding)

 

Ed,

 

Although your procedures took significant investment and time on your
part to learn, what you have shared here would be the basis of an
excellent CAUT class in the future, if you were willing.  I'd sure want
to attend it....

 

Bill Shull


La Sierra University, Riverside, CA,  where we just doubled the annual
maintenance budget this year to .6% of inventory value

 

 In a message dated 9/29/2006 8:14:22 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
A440A at aol.com writes:

	Inre Vanderbilt, Joel writes:
	
	<< I read this to mean that you may be doing well.
	The Wall Street Journal article this week lead me
	to believe your Chancellor is filling the coffers
	quite well.>>
	
	    Yes, we are well financed.  Of late, Martha Ingram donated $
250,000,000 
	to Vanderbilt, so Blair School of Music got a new concert hall,
new D, new 
	building wing, etc.  
	     One thing that helps is that we are using a lot of pianos
that I began 
	restoring in the early 1980's.  The work was done in accordance
to the 
	procedures I learned from David Betts and Bill Garlick, and time
has proven the 
	durability of their techniques.  This makes it easier to sell
the value of 
	rebuilding vs. loaner or trading in old pianos for new.  
	     One of our senior piano faculty is using an M that was done
in 1983 and 
	is still performing well, (albeit getting a little light and
brassy).  That 
	action job was billed at $ 1750 at the time, so the last 23
years of use seems 
	like a bargain.  The administration now accepts that $9,500 for
a complete new 
	action will also be seen as a bargain in 23 more years, so they
are happy to 
	fund that rather than spend $ 50,000 for a new piano!  
	     Refusing to cut corners, using the best materials
available, and putting 
	in the time to do the best work requires a little faith on the
front end, but 
	after standing the test of time, proves to be the best support
for funding 
	top-dollar work that I can find.  
	     There are a lot of things that go into it: ie, damper wires
that are not 
	only polished, but aligned so that they don't press into the
guide bushings, 
	insures that the damper felt is going to stay in the same travel
and the felt 
	lasts longer.   NEVER pushing a mute into a trichord without
lifting the 
	wedges helps longevity, too.  (how many techs always lift the
damper out of the way 
	before moving the mute through the wound trichords on a D? This
is 
	important!)   Proper alignment of the underlevers to key-end
felt is crucial to 
	durability.  
	     Stopping the damper pedal travel via felt blocks on the
trapwork levers 
	directly over the pedal rods prevents someone's foot force from
finding its 
	way to the upstop rail. Same goes for the sostenuto; that
intermediate lever can 
	be broken if the original felt block by the pitman is made to
take the full 
	force of the pedal, I like to stop it against the keybed
directly over the 
	pedal rod, too.  Una corda is often tricky, there are often
cut-out recesses under 
	there, but a leather or hard felt stop on the top of the shift
lever can 
	fashioned. This prevents the keyframe contact point from
gradually getting crushed 
	by the pedal jamming it against the stop screw.  
	    I think fastidious traveling of the shanks improves the
durability of the 
	pinning,( I pin a little firmer on school pianos).   Making sure
there is no 
	lost motion between jack and knuckle allows the knuckle to stay
round for 
	longer periods of time.  Coordinating the blow,let-off, and
keydip to prevent the 
	jack from jamming allows the let-off punchings to live longer.
Firm jack 
	pinning, (4-5 grams) doesn't slow repetition down at all, but
prevents jacks from 
	going off-center with all the attendant lopsided wear and
failure that ensues. 
	I use hide glue because I will need to replace parts in the
future and it 
	makes it soooo easy.  
	   Needling sufficient resilience into the hammers seems to let
them live 
	longer as opposed to leaving them so hard that all of the impact
force is 
	concentrated in the strike zone, causing a more rapid erosion of
the felt.  Hammer 
	tails don't need to be roughened if they are cut squarely on a
3" radius and the 
	back-checks are properly angled. I have back-checks from the
1930's in this 
	school that are just fine, while I have seen poorly adjusted new
ones wear out 
	in 10 years of heavy use.  It helps to taper tails as little as
possible,too. 
	   Polished and nick-free front pins greatly increase key
bushing life.  HOW 
	can the Steinway factory have let so many of these pins be
damaged in the 
	spacing process?  The bushings will last for about the warranty
period, then you 
	have a sloppy keyboard. I bush keys with as little caul pressure
as I can, 
	since the more pressure on the glue, the less glue is pressed
into the felt, which 
	effectively decreases the working dimension of the felt.
Bushings wear 
	longer .  
	ETC, ETC......... There is a way to build actions so that they
last.  It 
	takes longer and costs a little more, but I want every action I
rebuild to go out 
	there as advertising for my work.  I live with almost all of my
rebuilds for 
	decades, so I want them to be as maintenance-free as possible.
It frees up 
	budgets to cover more pianos.    
	Regards,   
	
	Ed Foote RPT 
	http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
	www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html

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