Bob, my sympathies on the Aeolian spinets. I learned on these things when they were new. Unpleasant little things indeed. At least you had a D as consolation!

Someone rented their D for a concert Sunday afternoon, and no one seems to know if there is a tuner scheduled. I'm on call, on Sunday just in case no tuner shows up!

Monday.
1. Service call at the college. Kawai GM-10. Loose damper guide rail screws. AGAIN! The tenor and bass section was loose. This is a typical problem with Kawai grands by the way... What is it with these things anyway? You can tighten the crap out of them and they manage to come loose again and again. I aligned up the rail(s) as good as possible but I still had dampers leaking through. I could see them lifting from the fronts sooner than the backs and visa versa. They were lifting left and right too. Dang things. So, I spent an hour messing with those until they shut off.
2. Tuned a Wurlitzer spinet. Raised pitch 1/2 tone in the middle section to a full tone up in the treble. Left an estimate on other stuff..
3. Tuned a Yamaha P22. Only a little flat. 438. R-440.
That's it for Monday!

Tuesday.
1. Tuned a Grinnell console. Actually, raised it 1/2 tone and only went over it once/ It came out pretty good considering. The hammers were sticking so badly that I decided to spend the rest of my time freeing them up. Used Protek on that. It worked.
2. Oh, dang,,,,,I tuned another Kawai KG 1-E. Was 438.. Left an estimate on that too...
3. Tuned an Everett spinet that I swear, someone was practicing on. No kidding. You should a heard it! Notes were, well, everywhere! B-3 and B-b 3 for example, were the same. So were the next two octaves above then, all of a sudden, a drastic drop to 2 keys flat then, the octave above was the same. I kept thinking, okay, who's been farting around with this piano huh? Some flunkies??? Over all, it was about 1 full tone flat with absolutely no rhyme ore reason whatsoever to it at all. Left another estimate....

That's it kiddies! I'm a liking this week!

Life in the fast lane...
Monday: Kohler&Campbell Grand, 4' 10" tuned for several years, suprisingly stable. Go figure. In HS Sojin 6' a bit flat, T116 Yammy wild in the mid range, in home Samick 5' service many years, OK, in church DH Bald 5' 4," Sohmer Studio, and Story&Clark Con service many years, S&C needs to be retired, weak block. In home S&S M old customer, midrange letoff too high and a bit flat.

Tues: 2 UST7 and Kawai RX2 in church OK, teachers home Samick Studio, bit flat, brushed hammers, in church UST7, Kawai KG 6', Everett Studio, all a bit flat. In home Story&Clark Console, keybed dished in mid range, space bass hammers, up to pitch. In home Vose upright, 1921, was stored in horse trailer, pinblock shot and will dope one of these days. Guy is a lawyer and Vose family piano heirloom.

Tommorow 7 more, mostly Kawai.

I worked on a Kawai today, too! :-) Well, a Shigeru Kawai . . .

Shigeru EX is going to Arizona for temporary use, needed to be prepped and voiced down. Coming along nicely, need to finish it tomorrow.

Don Mannino

3 Euro uprights: A Bohemia 121, A Schimmel F series 48 inch, A Wm. Steinberg. No pitch adjustments, but voiced the Bohemia (I wish they'd give those hammers at least a little cushion before they leave the factory...), regulated the checking on the Steinberg (hammers getting smushed against the strings). Last piano was an old Bluthner grand that I'll be revisiting shortly because the new keyframe rest cloth I installed was just a tad too thick. A sweet old instrument.

Don, I spent about 7 hours with Takanori Otake when he came to Ky. to do the first visit on a Shigeru. A Kawai dealer bought it for her home at the NAMM show. Just wanted to say he was very professional and thorough. He checked every note from top to bottom. He was very helpful with any questions I had. A wonderful experience for me.

Sam, maybe you already know this but, many techs do not. Bear in mind that the old Vose & Sons upright, had tapered tuning pins. You can tap them in gently to tighten them. No doping required.

Jer

Tuned my Steinway A... working through a full reg since it's been in the house for a week now. Then level strings/hammers and try my hand at some light voicing across the board. M&H A gets tuned today.

A VIP (Very Important Piano) tonight. It belongs to the Mill Manager at my full time job! Actually, it is right up my alley. A Wurlitzer Console that I gave a 2 semi-tone pitch raise and tuning a couple months ago. Nice that my advice is being taken on another tuning now. (The daughter had something to say about it...) Be interesting to see how far it fell in pitch.

Jerry this is one of those but the strings are nearly against the plate and it's a half step flat. Previous tuna tapped and there's not much room left. The owners are amenable to new board, block, bridges, action, etc., in a few years so I'm just buying time till then. Board is split, loose ribs, bass bridge apron is split, yada, yada, yada. Kid taking lessons.

1. Tuned a nice Yamaha console from Japan this morning. Close to pitch.
2. Tuned a Young Chang style similar to the Yamaha M1A. Close to pitch.
3. Tuned a Yamaha P22, Raised 1/4 tone from September.
4. Tuned a Kawai K-30E Raised 1/4 tone from September. Same house. Drove 150 miles besides. One of these pianos was my sisters so, I got paid lunch and a few brownies. YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMY!!!!!!!!!

Rode my bike on a beautiful day in the Bay Area Hills, made phone calls, fixed a bathroom sink, went to the dentist and got a cool little finger hacksaw from him for use on pianos. I needed a day off(of sorts)!

A finger hacksaw? Who's finger you gonna hacksaw off huh? Stay away from me with that thing!

Just don't give me the finger, Jerry, and we'll be fine...

It's just a miniature hacksaw for very precise, small cuts. Neat little device. I never could find one at OSH.

Had my first..."omg, my Husband didn't call you to cancel?"

Monster,

Bummer...I hate it when that happens...unfortunately, it's the occasional fact of the home service person's life.

Did you give HER the finger Monster? Kidding of course!

Tuned
1. Steinway D.
2. Another Steinway D.
3. Steinway B.

Very nice day for me today!

Wish I had mittens on...haha, no, just said it's not a problem, call me when you want to reschedule and put note in my book...next time I make sure they know about the no show fee....

Did get my M&H A tuned today and visited the local piano store...

Loaded up the piano tipper today to replace casters on a big old upright. I had to lift the piano away from the wall so I didn't scratch the wood floor. Muscles are feeling it now - I'm getting too old for that. That piano tipper has made me $$$$ over the years. Tuned four pianos as well. A Baldwin Acro with a loose bridge cap, Baldwin L with loose pins, Kimball Console, and Steinway S. Day off on Friday ---taking a bike ride to the beach.

Did just 4 today. Story&Clark console, marginal block. Reguled Mason&Hamilin console fallboard, tuned Seiler 7' in church, Kohler&Campbell grand. 5 tomorrow.

Yamaha u-3 gray market with hammer spring cords all breaking. Fortunately, still under warranty from dealer...hope they honor it!

Kawai GM 12

Insurance appraisal on a 100 year old Steinway "0" that was rebuilt in the 80s and barely used afterward. It would have been a great piano except for the cracks in the soundboard that you could drive a truck through. The shims didn't hold so well.

Samick Kohler and Campbell, 15 years old. 30-80 cent pitch raise. I hate to say this, but while they aren't great pianos, these are WAYYYY better than the last K and Cs made in the US.

Stopped in early this morning to make a couple of notes in a Steinway B I recently bellied for a Tech.

Notched the bridges in my freshly bellied Steinway O.

Had lunch, feet up on my desk, sun streaming in my large south facing top floor windows.

Pinned the bridges, in the fading late afternoon sun still coming through the windows.

It is official, the days have been getting longer since Dec 21/22 and it is now noticeable.

Sounds positively idyllic, Larry. Lunch at a desk instead of behind the wheel--I like that idea. I think I need to do more shop work.

Started with a Baldwin console that had been in a fire. They said it wasn't hurt and played great. Had rusty stings and keys sticking but it did tune up. Mouse droppings between keys.
A Henry F Miller spinet raised 30 cents that no one would like to tune,
A Kimball console raised 50 cent.
A DH Baldwin (Samick).
Finally a Pearl River 5'8' raised 10 cent which was the best one today even if they are not great.
Drove 200 miles and had lunch behind the wheel.

1. Tuned a Schimmel 6' something in a home.
2. Tuned another Schimmel grand.
3. Tuned a Yamaha P22. Then re-arranged a Dampp Chaser system that some IDIOT installed with cords flopping all over, the baffle dangling underneath the heater rod, not attached to anything, the humidistat hanging directly over top of the humidifier etc. Gee people, either install it right or go and do something else.
4. Tuned a nice older Yamaha G-3 that I did come action work on a year ago.

The last 3 were in a church. Another nice pleasant day today. And, I was done by noon!

1. Tuned a Janssen console that hadn't been tuned in forever. Discovered the apron broken in 4 spots, with one piece laying on the plate behind the bass strings. Funny thing is...the bass sounded better than most Janssens.

2. Local nursing home pianos. Was supposed to tune 2 there, but one of the floors was "closed" due to diarrhea and vomiting (sorry if you're eating while reading this). So just one there...a Crown/Geo. Bent upright (or "Orchestral Grand" as it says on fallboard) - 4 pedals. Unglued jacks, sticker felt coming unglued, some brass flange problems...no "feet" on the action brackets, so the action can't stand on its own...Have to go back for repair, and to tune the one on the "sick" floor.

Got home early...could have rescheduled something else...but it's Friday afternoon and I'm self-employed. I make the rules!

Cable Nelson spinet 50 cent flat, pitch raise and tune. Hasn't been tuned in years.

Tuned a Weber console, quite nice. A really bad Baldwin M that needs voiced and regulated but the lady don't think so. A 5'2" Young Chang 15 cent pitch raise and called it quits. It's Friday!

Murpheys law day. Wurlitzer Console pitch raise and sluggish wip and butt flanges. Has the long actions bracket screws with spacers. Snug coming out. CLP the action lube pedal pivots, reinstall action, tighten bracket screws from bass to treble and last one, nearly to the bottom and SNAP. Of course the pedal rod comes in on that side of the action so push the sustain pedal and the action lifts. Gotta go back and drill it out. DOH!

Story and Clark console pitch raise with grand style lid and 2 hinge pin. One of the pins disappears into bronze colored shag rug not to be found again.

GC1 diskclavier pitch raise. KGA teacher piano and another GC1 diskclavier.