Halt Piano Work!

[Richard Brekne]

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Hi Terry

You got off easy on this one. And to be sure more often then not people
are fairly reasonable. But this scene is one of those typical traps we
all too easily can get caught in.  Best in my book to refuse sooner
rather then later. Your piano teacher story is right on... more right on
then perhaps we really give it credit for.

Perhaps this story might be a good lead in to a general discussion about
a base line performance level for 1st year student pianos. Just where
should we draw the line eh ??

Nice story Terry

RicB




Farrell wrote:

> I had a new experience yesterday. I refused to work on a piano because
> of its deterioration status. Went to appt. to pitch raise, tune and
> fix a couple keys on a Sohmer console that was recently purchased used
> for $250. Piano was about 40 years old. Lady told me last owner had
> stored it in garage for years. Several keys were sticking. Open piano
> and saw 1/4-inch pinblock/frame separation. Action & keys seems
> sluggish and keys way-unlevel. Dampers oinking like they were being
> run over slooooowly by a steamroller. Otherwise, piano seemed to be in
> one piece. Told lady between pinblock, 150-cent pitch raise, tuning,
> and minor action work, she would be looking easily at $500-plus. I
> recommended that she replace the piano. She said "child is only 4 yo,
> surely we can just put $200 into it so he can plunk on it to see if he
> takes to piano. If he does well, I'll be happy to buy him a new
> piano." I told her piano teachers tell me that the best way to make
> sure a child fails is to provide him a poor-performing piano. But OK,
> we can tune it at pitch and try and free up the keys/action for
> $200. I should mention that all this is occurring in a brand new $500K
> house in a brand new subdivision with a brand new Lexus SUV in
> driveway and piano is in toy room with about $5K worth of toy trains,
> planes and automobiles scattered about........ Got to work, freed up a
> couple jacks, etc. in action, then started on sticking keys. Found
> that the key pins were rusty at the key balance hole. Key buttons
> started falling off. Key bushings started falling out. Several of the
> keys had to be pried off the balance rail pin they were so corroded to
> it. I told her that she needed the pins replaced and without doing
> that, I was forced to do the improper fix of over-enlarging the key
> balance rail hole. I recommended to her that she replace the piano.
> She said "just do $200 worth of work - I'm sure it will be just
> fine." After mangling a couple keys and seeing that they still did not
> work, I said to myself: "Self, this is BS. You need to halt work on
> this piano." Put piano back together, packed up my toys, and told the
> lady that she needed over $500 worth of work in the keys alone just to
> make them work, and that she would still have a piano with a slow
> action, a separated pinblock, and oinking dampers. I told her that it
> was not possible to repair this piano at any reasonable cost and that
> I was not willing to attempt to do so. I thought for sure she was just
> going to hit the roof and call me bad names, etc. (because she was so
> insistent that we could "make the piano good enough"). But she was
> very understanding and thanked me profusely for my honesty. I was even
> willing to not charge her because I wanted it to be clear that my
> intentions were genuine. She offered and paid me my minimum fee. (Her
> son just started lessons with a teacher/client of mine and I also tune
> for many of her other students.) We had a good talk about finding a
> replacement piano, Larry Fine, etc., etc. What I thought had developed
> into the service call from hell, in the end turned out to be OK after
> all. This was one of those pianos - like a termite riddled piano -
> that just gets worse and worse the further you dig into it. Terry
> Farrell

--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
UiB, Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html
http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html


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