Concert hall work

[Isaac OLEG]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
Hi Barbara

I'd say at large :

A half day for voicing/regulation each 6 months will do it for the usual
level keeping. I've seen pianos maintained with half a day each year, but it
was not enough of course.
Then, the difference is made with the continuousness and level of the day in
day out work, as this is then you can keep things in shape at best.
judicious lube, keeping the screws tight and parts aligned, a tad key
leveling when you have a little time, keeping dip and stroke consistent, not
allowing the mating to go west, all these make a huge difference when the
half day work is due.

During the half day, the regulation is evened, the hammers are lightly
shaped eventually, and the voicing is corrected. indeed only a few years ago
I was totally unable to produce that work in less than 2 days, but this is
actually possible and what we may aim for, as working in front of the grand
is experiencing hazardous postures and a lot of tiring moves that we'd
better have finished in a short time.

When it comes to repairs, I have no precise ideas as they take place after
some years of use and depend of the place and many parameters.

I'd say a hammer set can last up to 7 years if we are not too exigent, 6
years if we want the best. (10 years being the extreme limit and providing
an extremely uninspiring piano on the last years)

Our friend Andre showed us how a hammer change can produce the utmost
benefit to an instrument, and better than that how this job can be produced
in a very decent time (I believe he does it in 10 hours) without
compromising quality too much, as a second pass is always necessary some
time later. His point is that one should be able to change hammers as part
of routine maintenance, and that makes sense and a huge difference in final
quality - only recent hammers are providing enough tone.

For the (only) hall I plan to tune for a normal fee, abut adding from time
to time  lets say one hour work to correct things on the fly, and a day's
work/year should suffice to provide a good instrument between more deep
revisions.

On  the other hands the studio pianos in the Music conservatory in Paris are
due for a 2 - 3 days revision yearly, and keyboard work each 3 4 years, new
strings in the treble after 6 -10 years, new hammers the same, depending of
the piano....

In my point there is no trap work or case work, one should probably consider
it as well.(damper lift is treated separately during repairs),  I talk about
keeping the piano at the concert level that is generally accepted, no doubt
that if the artist is renting a Steinway from the S&S concert service , he
eventually will expect better, but in this case a fairly recent instrument
will be provided.

I'd appreciate if others have different points or if I missed some .

Best Regards, a good sunday to all !

Isaac OLEG.


-----Message d'origine-----
De : pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]De la part
de Barbara Richmond
Envoyé : samedi 27 mars 2004 20:04
À : Pianotech
Objet : Fw: Concert hall work


OK folks,

I asked this before (read below) and got one really good speculative answer,
but didn't hear from anybody who actually has a maintenance schedule or
agreement set up.  I'm sure there must be someone out there who has
something like this set up.  The information (in hours) would be helpful for
determining a budget line.   I'm told the amount the pianos are used varies
(not as busy as a recital hall at a university, of course), but still, there
are multiple tunings every month.

Anyone have anything set up like, for instance, after x number of concert
preps (tuning & tweaking), x hours are spent to catch up on maintenance?

Barbara Richmond


----- Original Message -----
From: Barbara Richmond
To: Pianotech
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2004 8:39 PM
Subject: Concert hall work


Hi all,

Speaking of concert pianos, what kind of regular service do you schedule for
public "big venue" halls?  My only experience with concert work has been the
heavily used concert/recital hall at a university where I was on staff and
serviced the pianos every week, with an every once in a while larger time
slot for the regulation that I couldn't accomplish during my weekly service
time.  Have any of you worked out an agreement where you can go in somewhat
regularly, having however many hours you need to get the rest of the
maintenance work done--besides trying to squeeze it in during the
preparation for an upcoming event?

Thanks.

Barbara Richmond, RPT
Peoria Chapter

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/2c/59/35/18/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--