Cracked plate

[Kent Swafford]

Todd,

The PTG has resources available to help you in this situation.

Several years ago, I asked then Journal editor Steve Brady about the
possibility of publishing one of his "theme" issues on the subject of
plates. He did so in November 2000.

Of particular interest to you may be page 22 which contains a short article
entitled, "Broken Plate! Who is Responsible?" by Don Galt, former editor of
the Piano Technicians Journal.

A main objective of this Journal issue was to provide _published_ references
that could be cited by technicians in your situation.

Best wishes,

Kent Swafford



On 12/13/01 7:13 AM, "Todd Mapes" <mapes_piano@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

> List,
> 
> This week I experienced my first cracked plate.  It's not an experience I
> would like to have again.  The piano was a Kimball console which, according to
> the customer, had not been tuned in 18 years by the previous owner.  The
> current owners had recently acquired it for $300 and wanted it tuned up so the
> wife could play Christmas music.  I opened the piano up and found a dead mouse
> and several mouse droppings (the mouse was mostly decayed), which, in my
> opinion shows that the piano hadn't been tuned recently and probably not
> played in several years, either.  I noticed no other problems besides a few
> broken Schwander butt springs, so I got out my SAT III and checked the pitch.
> The piano was 185-200 cents flat.  I did the first pitch raise with no
> overshoot and then checked pitch again.  The SAT III reading now was about
> 35-40 cents flat, so I programmed in a 25% overshoot and began tuning the
> piano at A0.  As I crossed the bass/tenor break, I heard a LOUD "bang" which
> was much louder than any string breakage I'd ever heard, so, fearing the
> worst, I got down under the keybed and looked at the plate.  The plate had
> cracked right through the hitch pin area.  The crack was all the way through
> the plate and I called the customer over and informed her of the plate
> breakage and that it was probably not feasible to repair the plate, and even
> if it was, there could be no guarantees of success on such a repair.  She
> understood that the piano was a complete loss, I collected a minimum service
> call fee and left.
> 
> Two days later, her husband calls me up demanding that I reimburse him for
> $300 or provide him with an acceptable replacement.  I informed him that I had
> no intention of doing so, because the plate cracked due to lack of structural
> integrity.  He informed me that his opinion was that the plate cracked due to
> my incompetence and/or negligence.  I then explained the pitch raise procedure
> that I performed and told him that to the best of my knowledge, I had
> exercised due professional care and was not responsible for the demise of his
> piano.  As a parting comment, the customer said he would just have to take me
> to small claims court and recover his money.  He could be bluffing, but then
> again, he seemed pretty adamant about collecting his $300.
> 
> So, that brings me to the questions - Have you or anyone you know been sued
> because of a cracked plate?  If so, how did you defend yourself in court and
> what was the ultimate outcome?
> 
> Todd L. Mapes
> Associate Member PTG
> Fort Smith, AR
>