Instrument condition

[Ron Nossaman]

>Barb Barasa wrote:


>My proudest moment in this area came when a player piano expert referred a
>customer to me after getting their player mechanism working.  He said, "Barb
>can get this thing sounding great!"  When I got there, they put a roll on and
>you couldn't even tell what tune it was playing!  I think it was about a
>minor third flat (I don't have any "cents" about this). I thought, "Well,
>I've finally been put in an impossible situation."  When I left, it sounded
>great.

Barb,

This looks to me like a classic example of an "expert" being "anyone a
hundred miles or more from home". As one of the few professional (a means of
eating) piano techs in this area who rebuilds players, I've just got to take
exception to the idea of this guy being anything remotely resembling an
expert. (At the risk of being labeled a sexist, I'm assuming the perp to be
male. You did say "he".) If the guy isn't a piano technician, he has no
business mucking about in players. This is only my opinion and not an
absolute, but I'm absolutely convinced.

I spend a lot of time on the phone with would be player patchers explaining
to them that the piano needs rebuilt FIRST! Putting new seat covers and mag
wheels on a car that doesn't run is not good mechanics. Neither is shamming
a player rebuild in a piano that isn't serviceable. While I have their
attention, I also point out that it costs a minimum of three hundred dollars
more to redo someone elses player job than it would have cost to do it right
the first time.

Of the hundreds of player "rebuilds" I have had the misfortune of being
called on to get working, the vast majority of them are partially done
butcher jobs in pianos that haven't even gotten the bigger chunks of dirt
and possum parts blown out. Mostly, I have to tell them what they've got,
what the last guy did for (to) them, what it needs to make it work, and
charge them a service call for bad news. If I don't have anything to work
with, I can't do them any good.

 The sad thing here is that the customer thinks the work was done by an
expert (who won't come and fix it himself) and has already spent far more
money on the piano than they wanted to, only to be informed (by me, the
ogre) that I can't enhance the luster of fecal material. The piano needs
rebuilt and, usually, so does the player. What this ultimately means is that
the piano will probably NEVER be rebuilt and the player will probably NEVER
work like it could have if the whole job was done. The next thing I
generally hear is "It's only a player, it's supposed to sound like that".
AARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!

Sorry about the rant, but this is a VERY sore spot for me. These things can
be truely wonderful if done correctly, but usually end up being the
mechanical equivilent of a badly stuffed deer... no grace, no life, no magic.

No offense.
 Ron Nossaman