Beware of liability issues when allowing someone to "help" you. Happened to a home-owner, the helper got injured and guess who was on the hook for 100s of Gs in injury repair and long-term disability. In this case a nominal amount of money changed hands as compensation giving the State WComp an in but any deal that quantifies compensation (monetary or not) for help makes this a person an employee where you are on the hook for everything your socialist state has determined necessary for employees. Approach with due care and caution. Pianos are capable of injuring people in a number of interesting ways... We should all know that by now. Andrew Anderson On Sep 12, 2009, at 3:06 AM, wimblees at aol.com wrote: > > Which brings to mind another question. She had asked if she could > help with some of the work. Pulling out tuning pins, strings, etc. I > know she's not afraid of doing grunt labor... > > What is everyone's thought on that? Would you cut some of the labor > cost of rebuilding for the owner's sweat equity? Does this open > other issues I can't think of right now? > > She doesn't want to work on any of the technical stuff, action, > etc., she just wants to get her hands dirty and help. BTW, she helps > rebuild engines for dragsters with her husband so she has some > skills... :-) > > Regards, > > Rob McCall > Murrieta, CA > > If she wants to help, let her, but not if it is done as a means of > reducing the cost of doing the work. You're going to have to teach > her what to do, and be there when she does the work, so you're not > really saving yourself any time. I would not recommend pulling pins > and removing strings, as someone could get seriously injured if it's > not done right. Perhaps she can remove the dampers, and clean the > felts off them. Some other ideas, if she wants to get semi > technical, is cleaning and leveling the keys, and hanging dampers. > > > Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT > Piano Tuner/Technician > Mililani, Oahu, HI > 808-349-2943 > Author of: > The Business of Piano Tuning > available from Potter Press > www.pianotuning.com > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Rob McCall <rob at mccallpiano.com> > To: pianotech at ptg.org > Sent: Fri, Sep 11, 2009 8:39 pm > Subject: Re: [pianotech] Haynes baby grand > > Thanks Joe and Wim, > > This piano says "Haynes" on the fallboard so I'm guessing it was an > attempt to capitalize on the Haines Bros. name. I mentioned to the > owner that they could have a $2,000 piano right now, they could > invest $5-10K in it and end up with a $3,000 piano. She said, "I > don't care. I don't want a new piano, this one means too much to me." > > I know Joe said to leave the emotion out of it, and generally I > think that's a good idea, but when the emotional bond runs this deep > and they're well informed as to the costs and end values, I'm > inclined to do it for them. > > Which brings to mind another question. She had asked if she could > help with some of the work. Pulling out tuning pins, strings, etc. I > know she's not afraid of doing grunt labor... > > What is everyone's thought on that? Would you cut some of the labor > cost of rebuilding for the owner's sweat equity? Does this open > other issues I can't think of right now? > > She doesn't want to work on any of the technical stuff, action, > etc., she just wants to get her hands dirty and help. BTW, she helps > rebuild engines for dragsters with her husband so she has some > skills... :-) > > Regards, > > Rob McCall > Murrieta, CA > > On Sep 11, 2009, at 11:14 , wimblees at aol.com wrote: > > > Rob > > > > I rebuilt a Haines Bros. a couple of decades ago. It was > eventually > bought by a local theater company who used it in their > rehearsal > studio. It wasn't the greatest instrument I had ever > done, but it > held up nice, and served it's purpose. > > > > Rebuilding a piano like this is not worth what it could possibly > > bring on the open market. But in this case, if the customer has > > strong sentimental attachments to it, as long as she understands > > that for the same amount of money she can buy a brand new instrument > > in much better condition, go ahead and give her a proposal to do > the > work. > > > > Wim > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090912/0c9be276/attachment.htm>
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