unexpected fun, sometimes

[Farrell]

Sometimes its the piano, and sometimes its the customer. Some of my most memorable service appointments have been to go to a lower-income home with the little spinet that has not been tuned in 20+ years. Often the owner plays for the church choir or some such. After pitch raising 150 cents and tuning it sounds OK. The lady sits down to play it and either starts crying or laughing or both........."Oh glory! I never knew it could sound like that!" etc., etc.

Those give me a good 24-hour smile!

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "antares" <antares@euronet.nl>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 22, 2002 7:59 AM
Subject: unexpected fun, sometimes


And, it is especially interesting to see how far one can go with any new
instrument.
Yesterday I tuned a brand new Förster Löbau upright (not the same as the
usual Förster) and I recognized a fine horse, so to speak.
At first, the thing was ugly, sounded irregular and gave a confused
impression. The owner complained about it, saying that she was disappointed
after all the sales stories etc.
I tuned it very carefully with my wonder wonder box and slowly uncovered a
diamond.
As I was at the end of my tether, so to speak, I promised her I would come
back in two months and then put all dots on all i's.

Is Förster Löbau for sale in the US?
(Renner action with very fine Wurzen felt, great for voicing)
I recommend it highly.

Anyway, as I said before...it is interesting to find the very limits of what
an instrument has, physically speaking.
It is also highly interesting to bring an already ok instrument to
un-forseen heights.
Like there was this older Yamaha G3. I was called in by the owner (a music
ensemble) who no longer could afford to rent mistreated and thus ugly
Steinways.
At first glance, the Yamaha was plain ugly. It had new Renner hammers which
did not fit really as they were too long, and the voicing was a 2 on a scale
of 1-10.
After a fight of three hours it turned out to be actually a nice piano.
Would I have had more time plus a hammer change with better fitting Yamaha
hammers, it would have been even better.

And that's my point : how interesting it is to bring an instrument back to
life and then ..what is the quality of that life?

friendly greetings
from

Antares,

Amsterdam, Holland

"where music is, no harm can be"

visit my website at :  http://www.concertpianoservice.nl/
and the website of :  http://www.grandpiano.nl


> From: Richard Brekne <Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no>
> Reply-To: Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 12:53:43 +0100
> To: Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Subject: Re: 3 gorgeous 1890's Knabe uprights for sale, unrestored.
> 
> Hi Terry.
> 
> Well, you do run into this kind of thing for sure. I ran into an old
> Burely and Boch (never heard of the name before) the other day that had
> a bass to die for. Huge big round boomy full sound. Treble and diskant
> was not all that bad either, tho there was some degree of falsness.
> Still I know of a few S&S grands laying around that dont sound or play
> as nicely. The comparision is really meaningless tho as so much has to
> do with how the things have been treated through the years. Personally,
> I have yet to see a wrecked Steinway that hasnt been.... wrecked. Put
> them in a nice climate, and take care of them and they all are nice.
> Some better then others to be sure... but just so.
> 
> btw... Nice comments from Bill and Dale.
> 
> Cheers
> RicB
> 
> Farrell wrote:
>> 
>> I just tuned a teflon B the other day that would get its lid blown off by
>> many old uprights. Not all that unusual. Killer octave was a good three
>> octaves wide! Tubby bass strings. That didn't leave much. Except for clickity
>> clack, clickity clack.
>> 
>> Terry Farrell
>> 
>> 
> 
> -- 
> Richard Brekne
> RPT, N.P.T.F.
> UiB, Bergen, Norway
> mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
> http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html
> _______________________________________________
> pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
> 

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