Breaking the one hour barrier

[Farrell]

Hi Tom.

> A good
> piano with no pitch raise can take me one hour or less.  Unfortunately,
those
> Lesters and Gulbransens still take me an hour and a half, and my client
list
> is packed with those little gems.

Ditto for me here on both counts. That's right about where I am.

> I guess I shouldn't say complain about
> Lester pianos---I did two complete elbow replacements this month, both on
> Lester pianos, which paid for quite a few Christmas presents!

I've been at this 3-1/2 years now and am starting to do more repeat
customers with better pianos (at least some). I find it hard to drive to an
appointment, chat with the folks, set up, tune, etc., etc., in less than 2
hours - sometimes a bit more. And all that for $75. I like the old days of
little spinets with "broke keys" that are 200 cents flat. $200 for elbows,
$100 for pitch raising, $75 for tuning - all completed in 5 to 6 hours. Who
says junk pianos are not desirable!!!!!!

> I know that elbows of this vintage are breaking on
> pianos all over America, but I wonder if the dryness from the dehumdifier
can
> accelerate the process.

I have observed several spinets with the plastic elbows and Dampp-Chaser
rods installed immediately below the elbows. All elbows above the rod were
totally crumbly. The few elbows in the far bass and far treble that the rod
did not extend to were bendable, but would not crumble. So I conclude, that
yes, the rod definitely accelerates the decay of the plastic elbows.

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message -----
From: <Tvak@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2001 11:14 PM
Subject: Breaking the one hour barrier


> I'm going to miss all this business next month.  I'm having so much fun.
And
> due to tuning so many pianos in the past month and a half (about 10 a
week!)
> my speed has improved: I did several one hour tunings this month.  A good
> piano with no pitch raise can take me one hour or less.  Unfortunately,
those
> Lesters and Gulbransens still take me an hour and a half, and my client
list
> is packed with those little gems.  I guess I shouldn't say complain about
> Lester pianos---I did two complete elbow replacements this month, both on
> Lester pianos, which paid for quite a few Christmas presents!
>     Curiously, both Lesters had Dampp-Chaser dehumidifier bars installed,
but
> no humidifier.  I specifically warned/asked both owners, "You don't plug
this
> in, do you?" and they said that they didn't, but certainly it must have
been
> used at some point, maybe by a previous owner.  (Indeed one of the pianos
> used to be in Florida.)  I know that elbows of this vintage are breaking
on
> pianos all over America, but I wonder if the dryness from the dehumdifier
can
> accelerate the process.  (Idiot-street-logic, which I specialize in, would
> dictate that it would.)
>
> Tom Sivak