This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment Oh I wish there were some standards for the "rebuilt" piano. I know this has been covered before, but I just got slapped in the face = with it today and it is so fresh in my mind. I can't resist. Delete now = if you prefer. Appointment to tune an "old" piano out in the country - I figured either = an old upright or a 1940s Acrosonic spinet.=20 Wrong. About a 1910 Chickering 5' 8" grand. Just rebuilt about 6 years = ago. Family heirloom. Very nice new million-dollar-plus home. Nobody plays the piano. They are = hiring a college student pianist to play for an upcoming party. "Rebuild" consisted of the all-too-common minimum - case refinish, plate = refinish, new strings (wound tricords and all), new tuning pins (various = heights and many loose string coils - and the damn becket end sticking = out a half inch), new damper felt (twice as wide as the damper heads, of = course), new hammers (at every angle under the sun) and new keytops. = That's it. Nothing else. The keytops weren't too bad. The action had not been regulated. New hammers, and not regulated. = Original key bushings so worn that they allow keys to bang into one = another. Key level all over the place. All original front rail paper and = felt punchings (no doubt center rail also)! Original worn out backchecks = (yup, and new hammers). Original shank/flange/knuckles - knuckles are = like little squares (let-off is definitely an "event"). Soundboard = cracked to smithereenes. Original cracked bridge cap with original pins. = This piano is almost completely devoid of sound - it is soooooo quiet. = Talk about a killer octave - this thing has a killer keyboard - 88 of = 'em. The entire high treble section hasn't one string that rings - the = best ones sound like a little electric wire shorting out - = zszszszsszszszszt! The action is as slow and mushy and heavy as any = trash action I have run across. I asked the lady if the rebuilder talked to her about rebuild task = options - she said no - she just told the guy to do everything that it = needed. She paid $7K - a little high for the work done - but that's not = the point. The lady wanted a piano that worked well. She got a = decent-looking 600 lb. cow pie. I didn't say anything else to her. But I sure wanted to. Is there some = way to tell her what a crap piano she has? Then I went to a funeral home in a poor neighborhood of Tampa. Tuned a = typical crap little 1960s Aeolian spinet - fair bit of wear, about a = dozen universal bass strings, etc., etc. With absolutely no = exaggeration, that Aeolian spinet was easily more than ten times the = musical instrument than the Chickering grand. The spinet played way = better, it sounded way better, it was 10 times louder, the treble = actually rang a little. Think about it. That is amazing. If I ever service that grand again I'm going to bring my Lowell gauge = and crown-measuring string and try to figure out how a piano could = possibly sound that bad. Sorry. End of rant. I was just so blown away by the crap work done on = the grand and this contrast between the two pianos. Terry Farrell ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/46/28/92/bd/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC