Acrosonic w/ bass bridge (Ethics) question

[KeyKat88 at aol.com]

Greetings, 

          A Piano store that I tune for, sold a guy a dirty, scratcjhed,  
Baldwin Acrosonic with 2 broken strings, its strings that are so rusty that even 
I broke one doing the "free" tuning. Its bass bridge is actually preforated by 
the bridge pins and its upper 'crust' ready to lay over splitting. A bridge 
pin fell out in fact.

          I informed the guy that there were 2 broken strings on the piano 
when he purchased it and showed him the cracking bridge. The brigde is 
preforated and cracking on its upper part (the part at the bridge pins) the lower part 
is on the apron okay and the apron is on the sound board ok. In other words no 
separating at the bottom of bridge or its apron. 

          The question is I feel I am put in a rough spot. This guy was sold 
this pioano for "alittle less than 1000.00" as he put it. and the store that I 
tune for sold it to him!   I am so appauled!  I would have never let this 
piano go out of my shop in this condition let alone ask 1000 for it! I am ready 
to call the store and give them my 2 cents, but they get me tunings and this 
creates a sticky situation.

           The guy, on the other hand is not too, too upset over it. He said 
he felt that they should have told him about the two broken strings, bu he was 
willing to over look that and that he would expect that a 50 year old piano 
would have some cracking wood pieces, and that he was willing to put 100 or so 
dollars into keeping it going, till he finds out if the piano will "stick" 
with the kids and lessons and all. He  thought 100 or so in repairs wasnt that 
bad in addition to what he paid. I see it differently. I guess my value systme 
is different. 

            How bad is a cracked bridge problem?  Is this bass bridge 
something I can dump CA glue in and keep it going, say, 5-10 more years OR do bass 
bridges just snap and the bass goes out/kapooey dies? Or should I advise this 
guy to go back to the store and get another piano from this dealer? This is a 
sticky situation.  

Juli
Reading, PA
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