Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum So, what did you do today?

Good one Dave,
We have been looking at them up this way too. Had a ride in one a while back (taxi) and the control panel on the dash is fascinating to watch, switching from battery to gas and back, as you demand more or less from the pedal.....

Today...shop work here in the shop next to my home...no travel. Nice.

Yesterday, tuned 3 home pianos, put on about 80 miles, went to my college, met up with the local gal and went piano shopping for the college. Got home at around 8:30 PM or so last night. Long day.

Today, tuned 1 home piano this morning, had sent my son to tune 3 pianos in a church so, I went over there next, touched up all 3 tunings and then we went out to lunch. After that, I brought back an action to a Yamaha P22 for regulation, hammer mating, key leveling and that sort of thing. Busy day but, we kept at it and got er done. I had last worked (not tuned) that piano 6 years ago. Knowing that and following up after me certainly helped me to know where I stood on regulation issues for sure.

A price shopper called today for a quote on tuning and fixing a sticky key. She wanted a guarantee there would be no extra charge for fixing her sticky key. The last time I agreed to that, the piano had about 30 sticky keys. Never again. She hung up disappointed, and I'm sure I saved myself a big hassle.

These days, there are a lot of people watching their money, as we all should have been doing all along. For cases like this, I offer to call if I am in the neighborhood and drop in and give an estimate. The other thing about this is that it keeps you from having a gap in your schedule if the job is not worth doing. Sometimes it can fill up such a gap.

If you want, you could charge a minimal price for that. You could also apply it to the work when it is done.

She was worried the sticky key could cost her more than the tuning quote. I do a lot of extra things for my customers at no charge, and she would be no exception, but I couldn't guarantee I'll fix it for free, when I don't know what "it" is. I told her 90% chance it was a quick fix, but the 10% scared her off.

Emergency call for a Baccalaureate. The complaint through the grape vine is sticky keys, but I will talk them into a tuning, which includes taking care of a few sticking keys. (I know this piano well...)

Monday: Cleaned the sound board, harp and key bed on a Yamaha C-7. Set my hammer line and let off on all of the end keys. Then, removed the action and pedal lyre. The lyre was coming unglued.

Monday evening, contacted my piano re-finisher person, had them repair the lyre for me. I hate doing that.

Tuesday: Dismantled the stack, cleaned everything with "Nevr Dull", capstans, balance and front rail pins, things of that nature. Lubricated all leather and whippen cushion parts etc., with soap stone, filed hammers and then regulated the action on the bench.

Wednesday: Removed an action from an older Everett studio built in South Haven Michigan. I love those old pianos. Worked on it the rest of the day. Filed hammers, re-pinned many of them, re-glued about 25 hammer butts and heels.

Thursday: Returned the Everett. Spaced hammers, leveled keys, regulated the action and all that good stuff. It came out nice.

Now, here is a prime example of a piano where specs are just that, SPECS. Key height on that was according to the book, supposed to be 60.5 mm. It was more like 65 mm. Hammer rest rail position was supposed to be (I forget now) something like 45 mm. It was about 5 mm more than that. I had a decision to make. I checked dip, let off, after touch. Dip was pretty good. After touch was close.... But a bit shallow. The keys were as usual, lower in height in the center than on the ends. B-7 had perfect after-touch. B-0 was close but, a tad lower than B-7. Both, were slightly higher than the rest of the keys. I raised B-0 just a tad to match B-7. I chose to increase the height of the other whites to match them and then I raised the hammer rail by about 1/16". Just enough, to give me perfect after-touch with a nice let off of about 1/8".

It came out great! I was always taught, manufacturer's specs are just that, guidelines. The rest, you must figure out by the seat of your pants and only experience will help you with that one.

nice job Jerry.

ME, I painted a bathroom, fixed a stack pipe leak between floors, patched the hole. Came home and packing for KY. Visiting family, attending a couple of dance recitals (their 2 girls are in them), golfing on Sat, swimming on Sunday, home on Monday. Somewhere in there I'm tuning their Yam...

Today, I had an argue with my wife, who said:" Either Piano World, or me, choose!". The problem is that the time zones are 8 hours different here and in the USA, so if I want to read fresh comments on PW, I have to do it during the night, cause it is your afternoon, when you finish your working day, and sit at the computer desk. I have been watching PW, exchanging mails with the most respectable names on it, and I find it very exciting and useful. But she does not. So, what can tell you... Here I am.

I almost thought your were going to say there was a time zone of 8 hours between you and your wife. Sometimes I don't hear my wife for a couple of minutes... and we have the same conversation if that helps at all...I didn't think so...

Hahaha, that's funny Bojan! PW won. I got in trouble with my wife yesterday too but, things are better now.

Thanks Monster. I might as well finish... Over the years, we took in 4 exchange students. France, Japan, Germany, Hong Kong. The gal from Hong Kong and her mother are coming tonight at 10:30 for to visit for a few days. Last minute request but, that is fine. We love seeing our girls again. She's been here 2 times since but, her mother has never met us. She's probably going to think, MAN, this guy is NUTS!

Tomorrow morning, I return the action on the C-7. I expect to be done with it by noon as how I set regulation prior to removal of the action usually leaves me with very little regulation to do once it is back inside of the piano again. Usually, just hammer and string mating, some touch up tuning and voicing. Then, we head to the cottages again for the weekend returning home on Sunday.

Life is sweet!

Today I put a new music desk on a Lester Betsy Ross spinet, one without plastic. It was one off the shelf from Schaff, which I finished to roughly the same color as the piano. She was very pleased. It worked well, as there was no point in spending a lot of money on it.

Tuned 4, replaced 3 treble strings on a grand, and installed complete DC systems on 1 grand and 3 verticals - new pianos going to a school. Life is good!

I have also replaced a missing music rack on a spinet with one of those Schaff jobs. Perfect for those who don't want to pay for custom work on a $200.00 piano.

Yesterday I filled up the new/used car for the first time after five days of driving--6 gallons for 300 miles, aka $20.00 saved! And all my tools fit in the trunk, too.

But there may be something to the Prius prejudice I'd heard about: almost got two parking tickets. One was downtown, while I was running into a business to get some quarters(he gave me a break, much to the surprise of onlookers), the other at Foothill college while I finished tuning the practice room pianos(no lady with open door this time...). I called security, and they sent the Cushman cops (sort of like Keystone Kops) around to sign it off.

Tuned a friend's Kawai RX-2 and headed home.

I agree with Bob and Jerry--Life IS Good!

Today I started the 2nd of my two weeks as an apprentice for one of the leading techs of this country. I'm guided through restoring a Bechstein from around the 30's, and participate in regulating a Steinway A. Very grateful for this opportunity!

Today, tuned a Knabe KN 590. R&L pitch. Then tuned a Gulbransen spinet with plastic elbows and damper flanges. Was close to pitch. My dad had tuned this piano in 1957. I was one year old. Next, I removed an action on a Cable Nelson spinet, tuned it up first though. Took it to my shop.

Tomorrow, I will be removing another action on a Yamaha U1 and then will be working on the both of these actions returning one Thursday late AM and the other Friday, PM.

8am teeth cleaning.

9:30 am - Replaced action brackets and Reg on a YC. As is typical, someone tried to reg the old brackets, so I'm turning capstans and let-off dowels more than a turn to get the thing back into spec! I had to align hammers to the strings as well. After filing the grooves out of the hammers, re-pinning a dozen loose hammer flanges, and gluing a loose hammer, it turned out just fine. Finished 3pm and ate lunch.

5 pm Tuned a Yamaha T 118 - pins very tight but tunable. The little girl who plays hovered over me the whole time. Fidgeting, making noise, leaning on one side of the keys, then the other side. Standing on the stool used for a foot rest to see better. She was sweet, so I put up with the distractions and made sure she played me a song before I left!

Update on the SD-10 from a couple of pages back:

The customer really liked how my work came out. One of the musicians made the over-the-top comment of thinking it is now one of the five best-sounding pianos in southern California(like I said, over-the-top).

Now, I'm about to regulate a 1925 M action, and i'm trying to figure out what to do with a lovely Brock & Vincent upright PSO in the back of my moving truck right now.

Speaking of which, everything I can find on B&V(London) has no serial number data, and just lists the year 1897. I ought to take a photo and post it, but it sure seems to me like this piano is more like 1877 than '97. It's small, like a modern studio, straight-strung, bird cage action(yup, all the makings of a nice writing desk), Brazilian rosewood veneer case, and the remnants of candlestick mounts. Am I incorrect thinking this style of piano was gone by 1897?

I also have a 1910 Ludington upright for R&R'ing key tops and tuning. One of my neighbors asked me for some advice on buying a piano, and I offered to find one for them. Craigslist here has about a half a dozen free pianos listed every week, and out of those, one or two is usually serviceable. So, I thought I'd hang out my shingle as a locator, putting people with pianos and making them work as instruments for them. Seems like a popular idea.

And my refinishing project keeps plodding along...

jabbed myself with an 8 needle sugar coater while voicing an older diapason grand. youch!