[pianotech] i'll take a pass - leg bolt question

[Ron Nossaman]

Owen Greyling wrote:
> Then you need a method to avoid “bad vibes”. An idea that I’m sure is 
> not original with me, is to offer a price range over the phone. I have 
> always disliked the “feeling” that occurs when the piano presented to 
> the tuner, is not in the shape or condition presented in the original 
> conversation. I don’t get “that feeling” anymore. Remember friends, that 
> whenever YOU are working, somebody is paying. When you are both working 
> and paying, it gets old really quickly. The freedom that you have when 
> you offer a price range is that you already have the permission to be 
> flexible with what service level you perform. Try it, you will love it!
> 
> Respectfully,
> Owen

Good advice, right up to the time you walk in and find 
something you wouldn't think to put on the contingency list. I 
showed up at an appointment the other day, expecting a pitch 
raise and tuning on a Baldwin grand. That part was accurate 
enough, as it turned out, but for the "by the way". The piano 
had been "movered". That's not just moved, but done unto by 
the moverzillas some beyond the expected minimal relocation 
trauma. He asked if it was supposed to wobble like that, as he 
demonstrated. Well, no, it's not. I found at least a couple of 
leg bolts that weren't tight. One wouldn't tighten because it 
was either a thread mismatch, or cross threaded, and the 
threads were chewed up beyond function. Another had been 
forced to the point that it was spinning in the nut, and would 
neither go in, or out. One lyre brace was half off, screwed to 
the lyre but not the keybed, and one lyre bolt was missing 
altogether. All this wasn't apparently considered to be 
important enough to merit mention as being outside the base 
tuning service requirements when they called. Never mind by 
what state of alleged mind anyone would lunge on a stuck bolt 
to the degree that would do such damage without an inkling 
that something might not be exactly right here. So I get to 
see what I can come up with to put legs and lyre back on the 
thing in their living room. It's a model B (I think), that has 
the single screw holding the music desk down to the plate at 
the bass break. Does anyone know that the original thread was 
for the leg bolts in these things? Otherwise, I get to 
fabricate parts (which will likely be necessary anyway).
Ron N