Piano from Hell

[D.L. Bullock]

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Those are the exact people who use my services.  You should have sold him
the $10,000. restoration.  I agree that he would not be happy with a
refurbish even if you put in a new bass bridge and new bass strings.  Here
in middle America a total job is usually only about $6,000 but when I get
done, my customers cherish the old piano as if it were built by
Stradivarius.  It will continue to give good service to a practicing concert
pianist for another 50 years.

There seem to be so few of us willing to restore these old chestnuts out
there that people send us pianos from all over the country to get our total
treatment.  I agree with your customer AND with you.  It is worn out and a
dead piano but yes it has great potential.  You can't ignore the wonderful
sound that is trying to get out of that decrepit old piano shaped object.

D.L. Bullock    St. Louis
www.thepianoworld.com

 -----Original Message-----
From: Rob Goodale [mailto:rrg@unlv.nevada.edu]
Sent: Friday, July 09, 2004 10:55 AM
To: Pianotech
Subject: Piano from Hell


 I had one of my worst experiences as a piano technician this morning.  I
got a call from a guy who told me his piano needed tuning and repair.  I
agreed to take the job.  Upon arriving I about fell over.


  It turned out to be a 90 year old "Metropolitan" full upright.  It was the
biggest pile of crap I have ever seen outside of a land fill.  I immediately
started in how old the piano was and probably not worth fixing but he
quickly cut me off and in a heavy British accent told me to "please fix it".
The "thing" had been painted white.  He was now in the process of painting
it gold which he proudly proclaimed was "restoring the finish".  Chunks of
wood were missing out of the case.  I opened it to find that the action was
not even screwed in place, just laying in the piano.  There was one broken
treble string and the bass strings were black with corrosion.
  There was a crack running under the bass bridge and the apron was loose.
There were broken bridal straps, broken hammers, and several others that had
been previously broken and reglued with string.  most of the hammer return
springs were out of place and some were missing.  One sharp was missing, the
key bushings were worn out, someone did a poor job at recovering the keys,
and the pivot pin on the sustain pedal had been sheared off completely and
the bushing block was shattered.

  He continued on about what a "great piano" it was as I looked at the sad
heap.  I calmly explained that there was simply nothing left to fix, the
piano was dead and what he needed was a new piano.  He came back with "You
Yanks, your all alike.  You throw anything away.  In England we would never
throw out a fine instrument like this!"  Then he bragged about how he KNEW
what he was talking about because HE was a pianist!  (Oh golly silly me, I
should have worshipped his feet on the spot!)  Then he proudly announced
that he bought it from an auction so it MUST be a good piano!  (Now there's
reasoning for you).

  I continued to explain that I was trying to save him money, that it would
cost him far more to repair than to replace it.  He demanded to know how
much.  I explained that it would cost hundreds just to make it produce sound
again and even then it would be nothing but trouble.  "Oh no I don't want to
do all that, I just want it REPAIRED, you know, so that it works"!  (Excuse
me didn't I just say that?  Do we need subtitles for this conversation?"  I
then explained that what the piano really needed was a complete restoration
and that would cost at least $10,000.00.  "I'm trying to save you money,
this piano is NOT worth it, you really should consider buying another
piano".  He again reminded me that he was a pianist and that he knew this
piano was worth it and that it really didn't need that much work.  Finally I
just told him flat out that I couldn't help him and that I really didn't
have the time to spend three days working on it.  His disposition continued
to get worse as I made a hasty exit.

  Shame on me... after all this guy was a "pianist" and got it from an
auction so he MUST know what he's talking about!

  Rob Goodale, RPT
  Las Vegas, NV




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