Ok so I have a Yamaha C6 my grandmother bought me for my 18th birthday. I estimate I have used it for 2 hours a day for 6 years. So that comes out to be about 4,000 hours of use.

I haven't gotten the action regulated at all in that time period. I just had my piano tuned last week and it sounds better but I noticed the action is a bit mushy. I can't trill very well and when I try to make it 'sparkle' I sometimes have a difficult time ... especially getting that pearly touch with quick piano scale passages. Some notes don't sound and I know it isn't my fingers.

So if there is anything I can tell my grandmother to make her freak out and think it's a really serious issue that needs to get fixed immediately and have her pay for the regulation ... what could I say? I don't have the money for it but I know it needs to be done ... I put it off for far too long. My technician kept telling me the hammers were terribly worn and the sound was 'dead' throughout the entire range. Also he would need to take the action back to his place and redo the entire thing. He quoted me at roughly $600. But my grandmother might just say 'deal with it' if it isn't anything that will further damage the piano. Please help!

Thanks a lot.

I regulate and voice the grand pianos at the university every year (about every 1500 hours of use), so it could be said your C6 is well past due having some work done. It sounds like the hammers need a good filing, if they aren't too badly worn, and the action needs adjusting, and the piano needs voicing. $600 is very reasonable for that work - many would charge much more than that.

No. Save your money. You've owned the piano for 4 years, used it extensively and now it needs work. Trying to get us to lie for you so your grandmother will pay for it I must assume is a joke.

Red flag: $600 is suspiciously cheap for a good voicing and regulation. I also question taking it back to his shop. This type of work is usually best done at the piano.

How well do you know your piano technician and his/her reputation? Proceed with caution...

He was referred to me by the gentleman who sold me the Yamaha 6 years ago. Said he was a fantastic technician and had fair prices. So I trust the guy.

He said 2 weeks to get it finished up. I thought they always had to take the piano action back because it takes a ton of time to re adjust all the gadgets to make the action perfectly smooth and even?

6 years. It's also been moved to different locations and when I say 2 hours of 'practice' It should probably be more because I'm a bit heavier on it than most 'casual' players.

What Jerry said. Dude, you're 24 years old. Why does Grandma have to pay for this? Sorry if that sounds harsh, but...

$600.00 in some areas of the country could be a little more than a days work.

An experienced technician can accomplish a reasonable list of important things in that time.
Including voicing.

One important consideration here .... If this service is more targeted on just the important issues and thereby reducing the cost to a more reasonable level, ... Perhaps people would do it more often ...

Overall, this would elevate the maintenance and the piano would sound better more consistently.

It certainly is one possible conversation one might have with their technician/client.

Cause she bought the piano for me 6 years ago and I'm assuming she realizes it needs maintenance every so often.

Plus some of the mid range is very harsh. Some of the keys don't respond well. When I am trying to play mozart and make it sparkle and the keys aren't responding I get extremely frustrated. When I am hammering octaves it hurts my ears because it's so bright.

I also can't pay for it myself right now.

There isn't anything harsh in your statement Loren. This person doesn't deserve our help or our advice. He apparently wants to be dishonest with his grandmother. When I read this I feel horrible for his her.

I simply don't believe someone would actually write that.

How is speaking the truth dishonest? I'm asking for advice like if not getting it regulated can be harmful or anything else that I don't know about that causes different things to happen to a piano over the long term.

Being deceitful, is not being honest. If you think you can fool some people, some of the time, you're probably right. The world is full of fools. It is even more full of foolish people.

I did not read anywhere in your original post where you were asking for advice on "not regulating the piano being harmful or not." But, I did read and so have others, where you said this: ...

It's obvious the previous technician has been telling you the piano needs work. You procrastinated it for whatever reason and now want your grandmother to come to your rescue and US to help you lie to get the regulation job done???. Forget it.... No help from me on that one.

Then don't help. Also you used the term procrastination incorrectly. It implies I 'waited' for it to be done but in reality I never had the money to get it regulated.

Interesting... That isn't procrastination?.... OK... Either way you look at it...

Don't worry, I won't help you, not in this case.... I doubt many others will either.

I've come to notice that members of this forum are way too sensitive to things. I usually post in the pianist corner but guess it's no different here either.

If you don't want to suggest something then don't post!

Wow. Seven posts by Dustin on one thread in a few hours. This must really be an emergency.

Ok, I'll bite. Here you are, the letter for your grandmother:

------------------
Dear Dustin's Grandma,
The piano you gave your loving grandson has been found to have a serious problem. Actually, not so much a serious problem as a gargantuan and dangerous defect. If not attended to by a piano technician very soon, grave damage could not only befall the precious instrument you gifted young Dustin, but his well-being itself is endangered. You see, there are some structural issues which have come up recently in the piano, and the instrument is in danger of self-destruction. There are more than 200 strings in this particular piano. The accumulated tension of all those strings add up to about 20 tons of force. The instrument cannot be expected to endure the high strain of the combined tension of for longer than two more weeks; thereafter it will surely self-destruct. When (not if!) Dustin's piano collapses, a great deal of damage will occur to anything (or anybody) within about ten feet.

As your precious grandson spends so much time playing the piano, no doubt thinking of his dear grandmother , he himself is in danger of being crushed or at least mutilated to the point that he will no longer be able to play piano when the instrument is crushed under its own internal forces.

Thankfully, the condition of the instrument has been diagnosed and a remedy is available. For the cost of only *$700, the instrument can be rendered as safe and sound as the day it was new. Now, Dustin is a bit short of cash these days, and it would be really cool if you could spring for the bill to cover all this.

For Dustin,
your corruptable internet piano technician

-------------------

* Note to Dustin: I know the quote you had was for $600, but I figure if your grandmother forks over 700, that would be enough that you could pay for everything PLUS have a bunch of friends over and treat them to a few cases of beer....

lol Supply...I'm in tears....:D

I did... Be honest.

Jurgen!!! I love it!

lol.... Supply that was wonderful.

So I guess there is no worry that any damage will be done to the piano if it is not regulated anytime soon. Too bad....

I'm actually studying and watching some videos of how to do it myself

Buy a science fiction book and replace the word antimatter detonator with the word piano. Have your grandmother read it. I doubt she will want to disrupt the space-time continuum.

Or maybe edit a book to talk about exorcising pianos? You will have to know better what is she most afraid of to make her truly freak out.

If your piano is badly out of regulation, it probably wont directly damage the piano and break something, at least I can't thing of a way how. It would just cause more uneven wear on the felt parts and hammers, which will further make it sound and feel worse. All this will cause a lot of frustration when playing.

My aunt gave me her old car as a present when she married (they didn't need two cars, and her hubby had a newer one).

Funny, I've never even dreamt about asking her to pay for subsequent lubrication services - not to mention the engine overhaul I had to do two years later...

[irony on]

Maybe I should have done that. I can just picture it:

"Aunty Ruth, you remember that car you gave me, like, as a present, two years ago? Well, I drove it for, like, two years, and now the cylinder head gasket, like, packed up. Please pay for me to get the engine fixed. I mean, after all, it was YOU who gave me the car, you know. If you hadn't, then I wouldn't be sitting with, like, a blown head gasket today. So, I need, like, the money from you."

[irony off]

Dustin:

I do want to help. I want you to become responsible for providing your own amusements. Cut back on your practicing and get a part time job delivering pizzas or something. Life will be much sweeter when you have a better perspective of the free enterprise system that we have here in the USA. This is not a piano problem. It is a maturity problem. And by maturity I mean doing what you ought rather than what you want.

Best Wishes, no malice is intended.

However, if you help a friend with his computer, every problem that arises during the rest of its live is heralded by a call: "Since you fiddled with my computer...." and you're expected to fix it for free!

You come to a forum of reputable and accredited technicians and you are surprised that they object to helping you lie to your grandmother so you can scam her into paying for your repairs, ....and you call them too sensitive? I think you could do with a bit more sensitivity yourself.


You are an adult - you may not have a lot of money but surely there are better, more honest ways to get what you want?

What about asking your grandmother for a loan, which you could replay in small installments? You could even offer to pay interest. She probably wouldn't charge you , but she'd be impressed if you offered.

Your suggested plan of action is quite offensive - both as a concept and in the fact that you want the good folks here to help you carry it out.

Aren't you a piano teacher? Where I live piano maintenance is a tax-deductible business expense.

(and I am also horrified at your apparent idea that just because your grandmother gave you the incredibly generous gift of a grand piano six years ago she should somehow be obliged to pay for its ongoing maintenance as well! ...insert gobsmacked icon here...)

OK,OK, everyone stand back, give the guy some breathing room.

I think the point has been made......

I think people don't know what the word 'lie' means.

Ugh.

Please realize I am intelligent enough to lie to her myself without your help. It's called making shit up. That's why I posted this thread to get some advice as to what might happen if it is not regulated and I continue pounding on it.

Thanks.

I can't believe you can't see why people aren't going to answer you. I don't want to be complicit in you lying to your grandmother. We know what a 'lie' is, you have told us you want to tell one, and nobody wants to help you do that.

Now perhaps if you had asked for the truth about what will happen to the piano, or more importantly what will happen to your development as a musician, as a result of this piano going unregulated, then maybe you would have been able to put together a persuasive argument for your grandmother to help you out in some way. You can probably still do this, if you genuinely do not believe you could afford to get it regulated yourself. Hell, maybe if you start being nice to your grandmother, perhaps she'll help you.

Asking for help on a public forum to mislead in order to extract money from your own grandmother, the one person who has provided you with your most treasured possession in the world... seriously?

Your piano will not be damaged if you keep playing it without replacing or reshaping the hammers. Of course the longer you wait for the service the more it is going to cost.

So you'll have to just deal with it or convince your grandmother you deserve a properly regulated and voiced piano.

Kees