Confessions of a klutz

[Les Smith]

Hi, Wally.

Your best bet is probably to start carrying around in your tuning kit
thr means of touching up those small accidental scratches and scrapes
that can occur despite your best efforts to be careful. Specifically
you can get yourself several felt tip finish "touch up" marhers made
especially for covering up small scratches and scrapes such as you men-
tion. You only need four of five. Say, black, light-brown, med-brown,
dark-brown and reddish-brown and--if you service any white pianos--whits,
too. They are not expensive and are available either from the supply
houses, or any good wood-working store. In addition to them, you might
also consider carrying twp bottles of OLD ENGLISH SCRATCH COVER AND
POLISH, too. The bottle with the pink top is made for light-medium wood,
and the one with the blue top is made for dark wood. Thus armed, you'll
be prepared for those small accidents that sooner or later happen to
everyone, no matter how careful they are. Pro movers carry supplies
like this and use them all the time. Also, if you're scratching case parts
with your finger-nails, it's time to pull out a heavy-duty, power belt
sander and trim those babies down! Lastly, if I'm working in close
proximity to case--say, tapping down the strings on a bridge on a grand
piano, or trying to clean the soundboard under the strings-- I always
remove my belt, so that there's no chance at all o the buckle scratching
the case. Hope this helps!

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net





On Fri, 14 Mar 1997, wtscherer wrote:

> What sort of preventive measures have some of you taken against scratching
> and marring the customer's piano? On several occasions I have done the
> following:
> 1. When picking up the fallboard to replace it, I scratched it with my
> fingernail. Remedy? Trim my nails better, and BE CAREFUL.
> 2. When moving the piano away from the wall, I scratched it with my belt
> buckle. Remedy? Look sloppy and leave my shirttail out? Don't wear a belt?
> 3. My tuning hammer fell off the pin and slightly dented the right edge of
> the case. Remedy?
> In NONE of these cases did I mention it to the owner. Would you?
> Salud!
> Wally
>