Jig plans you were going to send ???

[Ron Lindquist]

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At 07:54 PM 12/13/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>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.
>
>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


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