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Love those Schimmels.........

Today I moved a Concert Harp. First time I lay my hands on one.

Did 8 today; Cable grand in a church, P-22 for a University dorm, replaced pedals on it last year and this year the sustain pedal pin reamed out and bracket busted, will either replace or fix and tune in a few weeks, Hamilton and old Acro in church, Sohmer Console in home, "Grand" studio in home, S&S L, and Acro console.

Clef,

Thanks for the suggestions. This is the first and no doubt, last time this school will pull that on me. We ironed things out on the phone, no charges from my end, been tuning for them, well, including my dad too, for 45 -50 years. All is forgiven and forgotten.

Love tuning those Schimmels too Bob. They usually sound pretty sweet when I'm done with very few false beats.

Welcome back again Sam! 8. Not me! I think I'm getting to lazy!

I only did 4 yesterday. 1 Schimmel studio, an RX-6, 1 Yamaha full sized upright, one Kawai UST-8. Removed the action on the Schimmel, shoved hammer flange pins back in, many had slid out, tightened action flanges and regulated back checks.

I didn't feel good at all yesterday. Had body aches. Couldn't wait to be done. I am feeling better today though..

Friday night, a church called, and needed a piano tuned on Saturday for a concert Sat night. I re-arranged my schedule, and set them up for 9am Sat Morning. Got a call an hour later - Can I come at 7am instead? Ok.... rearranged the schedule again. I showed up at 7am Sat morning, and no one is there. no car in the parking lot, no lights on inside, all doors locked, no doorbell to ring, and no answer at the contact number. So I left and went to the store. Just as I get to the store, the phone rings - it's the church....Sorry, can you still come? heck no, I can't come. I re-arranged my schedule twice for you, got up early for a 7am job, and no one was at the church. Find someone else........ well, I was nicer than that, but I had commitments to other customers .

They called back later and apologized.

I made sure they had someone else to tune the piano and they did - or I suppose I would have re-scheduled for a third time and tuned them myself.

I had an appointment scheduled with one of my favorite customers today that turned out to be a no show. She called later in the day and said her husband had a severe head injury from a fall. Most of the time the customer just forgets but in this case she had a good excuse. Still the no shows will drive you crazy.

No-shows are irritating, aren't they? I had one on Friday. Actually, she was there, but she fell asleep while her baby was taking a nap. Very apologetic, too, but it wasn't so bad because it was the last one of the day and of the week!

Yes, the Schimmel uprights are quite nice. I had one on Thursday, along with a Seiler 132 with SMR action. This action has opposing magnets on the jacks and catchers. Nice pianos, both. Very full tone on the Seiler.

It's very rare for me to have a no show because I make a point to confirm all appointments the night before. If the customer doesn't return my messages, and they are out of my way, I usually don't go. That is also rare, though.

I remember one Christmas Eve, years ago, I had four scheduled. 8am went fine. 10am was a no show, 12pm canceled to finish her Christmas shopping, and 3pm wasn't home til 3pm. I was 25 miles from home, so going home wasn't an option. I didn't confirm appointments back then. I haven't worked Christmas Eve since then either.

I evaluated an 1850 square yesterday -- an A. H. Gale. Wooden frame; no cast iron. Square tuning pins. Odd to see hammers crosswise to the shanks in the bass, and that starburst pattern of strings in the high treble (they fan out in about 3/4 of a circle). Leather-covered hammers about 3/4" across. Delicate dampers on levers. Ivory keys, with horizontal recesses on the keyfronts. The vertical area above the keys curves towards the front at the sides, so the first and last few keys are shorter and have curved tops. Soundboard is enclosed from the bottom, like a harpsichord. Beautiful rosewood veneer.

160 years old, and still plays! Amazing.

--Cy--

Tuned 4 Yamaha's today. 1 U 1 and 3 P22's. Dassss it! I have arthritis in my back. I'm finding that tuning many more than 4 a day just kills it. Guess that's a good excuse to not work as any huh???

I've been using my hammer like crazy lately...



Would much rather be pulling some strings...lol

Looking good Les! Do I dare say that you're "board" with it? Or, you're "Strutting" your stuff? Orrrr, you're in the right "frame" of mind? Orrrr, your house is really all "decked" out? Orrrrrr, you live on the upper "tier?" Orrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

You "nailed" it, Jerry.

Of late, just "joisting" around... btw, it's a clients house, my other job.

Had an old Acro with the capstans and booby trap sticker guides and 150 cents low in pitch. They sell stuff on ebay and had a 3 foot long tube labeled “music wire” that they had not been able to sell and wondered if I was interested. I remember that some hardware stores would carry music wire. I looked inside and sure enough there was a selection of straight-as-an-arrow piano wire without rust, with the ends sawed instead of snipped off, and including some larger sizes. So I said sure I am interested. Sometimes a bass string breaks and I need a piece of heavier wire to splice it. (I don’t have a proper selection, but often just use the heaviest I have…) They said they barter. So what happens? You guessed it, a bichord broke. So I didn’t charge for the splice and got the tube of music wire. I haven’t checked all the sizes, but the largest is 0.125 and the smallest 0.020. Hope I never need the largest!!!

I tied a knot in note C1 on a Mason Hamlin at the U. I brought the string home, and with the help of a bench vise, made the knot. Wire was a bit stiff..............

Ouch! That's serious torque you have to apply. What sized wire did you have to use?

I used size 21. I tried do make the knot at the school, but there was no way it was going to be small enough to rest in the speaking length. This is an Aeolian Mason that was in a teacher's office but it's just been moved to a practice room. It needs new hammers and strings. I replaced the crusty damper felt two years ago.

Encouraged by Jerry and others, I realized that I can pull a piano up to approximate pitch very fast, with or without an ETD. Tried that today, and the important thing is "don't dwell".

Well, I don't dwell in my everyday life anymore, but I have a hard time transferring that revelation through my tuning hammer. Anyways, I got where I wanted to be in 15 min - about half the time I normally use. Thanks Jer!

So what did you do with the 15 minutes you saved?