[CAUT] Reality check...Big Time!

Paul T Williams pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu
Sat Dec 11 13:08:29 MST 2010


Ha ha ha!, Ted, Nice answer!  Some old horses were shot years ago, and 
nobody knew it! Just like pianos!  some are Zombies! They're dead but they 
don't know it yet....


All the Best,
Paul




From:
Edward Sambell <esambell at yahoo.com>
To:
caut at ptg.org
Date:
12/11/2010 02:03 PM
Subject:
Re: [CAUT] Reality check...Big Time!



A friend of mine, who I had taught was asked by a customer, "How is my 
piano"?. He thought a moment, then replied, "Let's put it this way ma'am. 
If your piano was a horse, it would have to be shot?.

Ted Sambell


From: Paul T Williams <pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu>
To: caut at ptg.org
Sent: Sat, December 11, 2010 9:39:45 AM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Reality check...Big Time!

OK Del, 

You win this time!  I have on occasion back on Whidbey Island have had to 
tell the customer that their piano is untunable.  Some have even teared up 
since it was grandma's wedding present in 1920. 

Paul 


From: 
"Delwin D Fandrich" <del at fandrichpiano.com> 
To: 
<caut at ptg.org> 
Date: 
12/10/2010 08:17 PM 
Subject: 
Re: [CAUT] Reality check...Big Time!




Oh, don’t complain—either one of you! 
  
For reasons I can only speculate over my wife arranged for me to tune a 
piano for a woman in a nearby assisted-care facility. Turned out to be a 
Kimball spinet built in the mid-1970s. When I asked when it had last been 
tuned the owner, now in her eighties, said it was tuned just after it was 
delivered. Thinking she must have misunderstood my question I repeated it 
a different way. No, turns out she understood me quite well; the piano had 
been tuned right after it was purchased and, since the salesman had told 
her some story about how the soundboard (or something) didn’t move in this 
piano it would never need tuning. But lately she’d been wondering about 
that since it hasn’t been sounding quite right the last couple of years. 
  
This was only the second piano I’ve ever tuned that was well over a full 
step flat—the middle was down a full step and a half. Sigh. 
  
ddf 
  
Delwin D Fandrich 
Piano Design & Fabrication 
620 South Tower Avenue 
Centralia, Washington 98531 USA 
del at fandrichpiano.com 
ddfandrich at gmail.com
Phone  360.736.7563 
  
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of 
Keith Kopp
Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 2:42 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Reality check...Big Time! 
  
Oh how I wish I could say this type of thing has not happened to me. My 
horror story this week is the call from the party that bought a square 
grand from us a couple of years ago. Please don’t ask why we had it. I had 
hoped it had disappeared forever. Now it needs a tuning and guess who they 
called? We sold it so obviously we should be excited about tuning it. 
  
Keith 
  
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Paul 
T Williams
Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 3:28 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: [CAUT] Reality check...Big Time! 
  
Wow, after going to one of our Vise Chancellors house today for a private 
tuning, I'm really glad to have my job in the School of Music.  I forgot 
just how ugly Whitney spinets are especially when not tuned for many years 
(in Nebraska weather).  The chancellors wife "thought" maybe it had been 4 
or 5 years since tuning, but a quick check on the tuning fork says over 
1/2 step flat! I remember my mentor, Steve Brady, saying if the customer 
can't remember how long it's been, double what they say!! :>( 

 Every key rattles and buzzes and plays like garbage!!  Since it is for a 
Univ. party with our Dean playing, I agreed to just tune it for my usual 
discounted faculty fee.  Really bad idea!  I left the shop at 12:30 and 
here it is, 4:30 just back!!  Why oh why did I get myself into this one. 
All I did was quick PR and tune and fill follow up with a warning to the 
Dean! 

I now remember how horrible spinets are and won't tune one again, unless 
I'm laid off and have to go back to the self employed status.  Even makes 
our icky 1098's look pretty nice! 

How spoiled we get with a decent inventory that are all kept up! 

Remember this you folks! 

Paul 




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20101211/ffc3fae7/attachment-0001.htm>


More information about the CAUT mailing list

This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC