Apropos

[Richard Brekne]

Thanks for all the good advice on this one. As Graham relates in his example...I
normally walk away from these kind of pianos, yet something about how this
particular lady described her wishes regarding this beater made me stop and
think twice.

Certainly it is posible to secure this instrument if I may put it that way. If
she is then very sure thats what she wants, and very clear over what costs
entailments and general results are going to be then why should one not see to
it that she gets this job done in as professional and skillfull manner possible.
It really leans a bit in the direction of restoration work when it comes right
down to it.

Both Keith and Ron K seem to aggree on a minimalistic approach to begin
with...and I thought Rons idea of an hourly wage was one to think about. And I
liked the "picture" I got in my mind with Keiths description of the art of
"making it work".... perhaps we too often overlook this area of work. Willem
comes with advice of due caution and boy can I back him up on that. In fact this
is one of the reasons I wonder if a more complete (and expensive) fix would be a
safer route...but then I suppose things could work against you  either way.
Making a list seems prudent.  I especially liked Ralphs idea about taking
pictures and documenting the way. Both an interesting refererence for the owner
and a way of covering your rear end as the technician.

One thing I would want to avoid for sure is getting caught in that circle of
returning to fix this little or that little thing time and time again...It gets
expensive for either the customer or for me...or for us both...and that kind of
thing ends often enough up with bad feelings being generated.

--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no