"Deal of the Century" X 2

[Alan]

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Number One:
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New customer. Cable spinet. 1966, no plastic action parts.
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Actually in good shape, hammers barely dented, felts soft, pretty clean.
Asume it has mostly been used to hold cats and family photos for all
these years.
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Bought it from one of those off-the-back-of-the-truck-guys. They didn't
include a tuning or any sort of warranty.
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Almost 50 cents flat, on average. Regulation pretty good. No mechanical
problems.
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Owner is a young piano teacher and plays VERY well. Unlike most, she can
actually hear out-of-tuneness beyond just sour notes.=20
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Says she wants it to sound really good, (Like THAT's gonna happen!)
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Pitch raise with TuneLab and fine tune with two passes ... Wild strings
galore ... "Wahwahwahwaaaah" all over the piano. Top octave and a half
are racous, shrill, whiny, yucko.
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Promise her that the effect of the whole piano in tune will be far
better than the problems with individual notes make it seem and far
better than before I walked in the door.
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She wants to know why we strike the keys so hard while tuning. I
explain. She wants me to demonstrate the wild stings and how we try to
pull two strings together in unison. While she is two feet away watching
intently, I hit D#5 and the key snaps in half, right at the
dogleg--which happens also to be right at the center pin ... Grrrrrrr!
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Repair key for free (what else could I do?) Touch up and tweak a few
unisons. Play it. She plays it. "Sounds fine," she says.
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So I ask: "What did you pay for the piano?" "Oh," she says, "We got a
good deal. They wanted $1,500 for it but we talked them down to a
thousand." I make Nooooo comment other than "Hmm."
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Number Two:
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Nice German lady with three, count 'em 3 pianos. Doesn't believe in
tuning them too often but says that her grand has a few keys that sound
like they are playing two notes at the same time. "Does that mean it's
out of tune?"=20
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I think so, yes. But that's just MY opinion. I could be wrong. Let's
have a look, shall we? ( ! )
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Anyhow someone abandoned a piano in her rental house: She asks if I want
it. She says it looks okay except that the runaway renter took the
ivories with him.
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Okay, I can put on the plastic. Meet her at the house to have a look.
1916 Kenmore a.k.a. Stark. Definite PSCP (Piano Shaped Cow Pie).
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They did, indeed, take the ivories=97and the keys to which they were
attached!!!
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Question: Had it been a really nice piano, could a set of keys be
duplicated from the key frame and some measurements (and, in this case,
the sharps)? If so, at roughly what cost to me?=20
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Alan R. Barnard
Salem, MO
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