[pianotech] Premium service

[David Ilvedson]

I can do a "full-cleaning" as opposed to vacuuming around the tuning pins in about a 30 to 40 minutes.   I pull the action, vacuum clean what is accessible.   Spurlock tools and vacuum under the strings and what I can see below the plate.   Whatever is not vacuumed from the Spurlock tools is dragged to the treble area and vacuumed up.  Run a cloth...damp if soundboard is really grungy over the soundboard.   Wipe down the plate, teflon-powder the keybed and knuckles and re-install.  This may take a little more time but that's about it.   Usually this is a first appointment service, which includes pitch raise and tuning.   I igure 2 hours for this first service.   This is an expensive service call.   Most of my work is referral and no one blinks...rarely, anyway.   Yeah, the extra cleaning/lubing is about $100 extra.   

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA  94044

----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: "Ron Nossaman" <rnossaman at cox.net>
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Received: 3/10/2010 12:52:34 PM
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Premium service


>William Monroe wrote:
>> I really don't think I should have to get grubby lubricating 
>> key bushings or some such.  If it needs it, I do it.  

>I do too, as it becomes part of the job at that point.


>>Honestly Ron, just 
>> because something is cosmetic only doesn't make it valueless.  The field 
>> we work in is the arts.  Aesthetics are part of it, and just because the 
>> aesthetic portion of piano work ranks rather low on your scale, doesn't 
>> mean it's that way for everyone (or even the majority).  And certainly 
>> it doesn't justify condescension like your comparison to caster 
>> detailing.  It really was condescending, Ron, unjustly so.  

>It wasn't meant to be condescending. It was meant to make the 
>point that cleaning for cosmetics sake isn't a necessity for 
>the function of the instrument, but insisting on cleaning the 
>soundboard and plate (when you won't be in there with your 
>hands) is no different from insisting on cleaning the casters. 
>It's arbitrary. The manufacturer chose those big brass wheels 
>for a visual aesthetic, rather than any functional purpose 
>that ugly rubber wheels would serve.

>And I didn't say cleaning was valueless, did I? I said it was 
>non performance cosmetic.


>>David simply 
>> suggested vacuuming, you were clearly mocking the mere suggestion of 
>> it.  

>No, I wasn't, at least not intentionally. I am baffled that 
>people elsewhere would actually pay what it cost to do. They 
>typically won't here.


>>Would it really be so difficult to simply say something without 
>> being patronizing?

>I wasn't aware I was being patronizing.

>Ok, help me out here. I've explained myself three or four 
>times now, without apparent result, so I'll give up. How do 
>you guys price this work? Are people everywhere but here ready 
>to spend $100+ to have their piano cleaned?
>Ron N