Likes her old clunker

[thepianoarts]

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Ron,

   How good are you at walking on water? No, really, there is hope.  She is
used to a light touch-weight and bright piano. The relative 'softer' sound
of the Walter, contributes to the sense that it is harder to play.  You
could do the following...

   Make the piano brighter...acetone by itself will brighten it up a bit,
although the acetone/keytop solution is probably necessary. Take a hair
dryer with you, and get it how she likes it ( brighter) before you leave. If
you are not used to juicing, with acetone, get help.
   
Have her play it for you, before you juice,  and observe her style and
strength. You can then decide how much juice to apply. Get her input.

   Brightening this piano will give her the sense that the piano is easier
to play. Most of her complaints revolve arround tone production and
perceived touch-weight.

Shorten the blow distance a little. (How is damper timing? If too early, you
could save some weight there)

Make sure let-off is happening close, to get the most bang for the
keystroke.

   Her perception is common...I  hear the same refrain from new piano
owners. The point is, she must get aquainted with the instrument, by playing
for say six months...and then you will do the 'final voicing'.

Dan Reed
Dalas Chapter


on 2/22/01 11:44 PM, Ron & Lorene Shiflet at rshiflet@eaznet.com wrote:

List,
   I'm running into a problem.  A good friend and client of many years just
couldn't stand her old clunker of 50 years.  I sold her a brand new
professional studio which is a wonderful piano.
   While we were waiting for the new piano to arrive, she became very
emotional about her old piano and it became sentimental.  Now she can't seem
to enjoy her new piano.  I'm trying to decide the best way to deal with
this.
   Her old piano is a 1950's Baldwin spinet, drop action, scuffed to death,
missing finish from water vases placed on top, unlevel keys, poor
repetition, action in need of a rebuild, sounds "tinny" at best.
   Her new piano is a 2001 Charles Walter studio, Queen Anne, Accu-tuned to
A-440, absolutely nothing wrong with it.
   Her complaints are:
    The action is stiff.
    Keys are hard to press
    "It feels like there's cotton under the keys".
    The notes don't ring when you let off the key (go figure).
    Keys don't repeat ( we'll look into this, but it didn't happen at
the tuning) 
    The sound just isn't real bright.
    Won't play loud unless you pound.
I've worked for dealers before who had customers so accustomed to their old
clunker that they hated the good piano.  All of you tasteful technicians,
how do you deal with this.  Remember, she's female and it's an emotional
thing.  I told her to play on it for 2 weeks and get used to the feel, and
then I'll come out.
 
Ron
 
rshiflet@eaznet.com
  




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