Hi Terry, Welcome to the world of concert (type of) work! Glad you had your running shoes on! :-) Avery At 08:01 PM 09/21/02 -0400, you wrote: >Got a call from a client and the University of South Florida to tune a >small Kawai grand in the theatre for a concert being given by the Florida >Orchestra (the BIG local orchestra - Jahja Ling is music director). I had >tuned the piano previously. OK piano.. I was looking forward to this as I >had never tuned a piano for the big local orchestra! Wow! Cool! > >Got there at 8 AM today. Where is the little Kawai? "Someone at the music >school took the Kawai and gave us this Steinway!" "Pretty good deal....yes?" > >1960s L. Teflon action. Clickity clank. Massive deader-than-a-doornail >killer octave section. Bass strings WAY tubbier that the WORST old upright >I have ever heard (I checked the bass bridge to see if it was attached - >it seemed to be) - they were honestly WAY worse than absolutely horrible. >Action regulation horrible. Half the hammers not checking and bobbling. >Rep springs way tight. Hammers with 17mm long flat tops (that's like a >good (or bad) 3/4-inch long). Most hammers only hitting left two strings. >And this thing is the centerpiece for the orchestra! > >I only had a couple hours before they were going to use it for rehearsal. >Thank God I had super glue and duct tape! I pitch-raised it to A440, tuned >it, filed the hammers, shimmed the action frame for hammer alignment, >roughed up the hammer tails to make most of them check. Added a little >drop to some just so they would not double strike. That was all I had time >for. This thing needed a good 200 hours of work - at least. > >And then I RAN out of there before anyone with the orchestra saw me. I >didn't want anyone to know that I had anything to do with that piano. What >a fiasco. I suggested to the dude to get his little Kawai back or get >ready to spend some bucks on the sad L. > >That was my morning. Major old uprightitis in the afternoon. > >Terry Farrell > > >_______________________________________________ >pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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