SPINET OUT OF CONTROL

[james allen bickerton]

James Dally wrote:
>
> James:  I'm very interested in your story.  What happened that the action
> being taken out created the need to regulate.  I've never had this happen
> and I am looking for signs that will warn me to not remove an action in
> certain cases.  Many thanks.  Jim Dally
>
> ----------
> > I performed a Pitch Raise/Tuning on an old Wurlitzer Spinet (1969).  It
> > took about 3 hours and was difficult at best because the piano was very
> > unstable (probably due to not being tuned in years), and when trying to
> > fine tune a string, it would jump from sharp to flat (i.e. the tuning
> > pins were sloppy).
> >   Satisfied that I had performed the tuning to the best of my ability, I
> > promptly wrote out my standard Pitch Raise bill ($90.00), when the owner
> > informed me that "one of the keys was sticking."  Sure enough, one of
> > the keys was sluggish (something I didn't notice during the tuning."
> >   While peering through the action at the offensive key, I notice that
> > the jack was offset, and while playing the key, I realized that the
> > broken/misplaced jack was the culprit.
> >   Then I did something REALLY STUPID.  I took the action out of the
> > piano.  Sure enough, the pin holding the jack in the whippen had come
> > loose, and securing the pin was easy.  What wasn't easy was putting the
> > action back in, and REGULATING IT!  Two days later, and a broken key
> > (from screwing down a sticker screw too tight), I finally had the piano
> > adjusted close enough to where it played as well as it did before.
> >   MY QUESTION IS THIS - when working on a piano that is worth $200 tops,
> > where do you draw the line when it comes to repair work?  I mean, it
> > seems to me that there is an element of risk involved when working on a
> > piano that is close to junk quality.
> >   In time and money, I lost big time on this one!!!
Jim,
  There were no signs that the action would need the kind of work that I
put into it to get it "playable again."  I first realized that there was
a problem though, when I put the action back in and it wouldn't line up
correctly.  IN FACT, ONE OF THE ACTION BOLTS WAS BENT, something that I
didn't realize until I tried screwing it back in.  The bent action bolt
made it virtually impossible to get the action lined back up correctly.
  I learned a valuable lesson from this one.  I WILL THINK TWICE BEFORE
I REMOVE A SPINET ACTION AGAIN!  Particularly one that is in this poor
condition.