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Whippen

I would like to see you do that on the very shortest string
And I hope you don't put the dowel into the pin block

I did my first-ever splice today, on my own piano, an Ibach console. One of the strings on D3 (bichord) broke during a recent pitch raise.

I'm glad to say: it's holding up, at pitch.

Way to go, Mark!

Funny. Ya! DEAD quiet!

Me? Nothing for the past 2 weeks but, set here watching and reading. Planning on trying to go back to work again to tune ONE piano, next week Wednesday.... One on Thursday and then hopefully, 4 on Friday... We'll see how my knee holds up. Doing pretty good though for an "old fart." hehe.!

Installed a new set of Ronsen hammers in our Starr Baby Grand. All I managed to do was get the hammer set hung and back in the piano. Straight out of the box. No regulation today. Just pleased as punch about the new sound the piano has.

I'll have to say a big thanks to Dell for his time and effort in helping with my choice on the hammers.

And Ray at Ronsen was full of information and just a pleasure to talk to.

Pitch-raised a 100 c flat Hellas piano in three RCT passes - one in pitch raise mode, one in smart tune, one in fine tune. Worked out very well, and seemed as stable as could possibly be expected.

I also received an arrival notification from the customs for my package from Steve Fujan - this time the short shaft, a 5 degree head, a straight handle, and a new set of watanabe tips!

9 today; 1 at a church, then 8 at a college. It's college week!

Cussed BDBs thermoneal snow-blower. The township plow never did come by. But someone with a tractor and a blade did. It was better than nothing.

On Monday, tuned a beautiful sounding 2004 Estonia 190 - the client was really frustrated over the last few months by an extremely annoying buzzing sound that would happen sympathetically, primarily to note C5. Took about 20 minutes, but I found the source: a slightly loose adjustment bolt on one of the sostenuto brackets. Tightened all the other screws in the back action and action stack while I had it out...owner was thrilled that I solved the problem, as was I.

After that I installed Dampp-Chaser systems in two brand new Blüthner Model 6 grands (different owners.) Yes, quality is alive and well in the world of new piano manufacturing...

Yesterday tuned a Cable & Nelson BG, reattached a couple of ivory heads, repaired the front leg and retrieved the infamous lost pencil...

Total of 7 today; 1 private and 7 more at the college. Two more days at the college should wrap it up.

So I'm working sales on Wed and Sat's at a local piano store. Today Rick Roe, a friend of the owner, came in and played a few...

it was a nice day

7 at the college today, and then a bass string install at a customer's home. Going to pull a 10-tuning marathon at the college tomorrow to finish 'er up.

Repairs at college, and left my tools locked in a room there. Only the second time in my life I've ever left my tools... calculated risk,... they are on break and we have tons of rain and flood warnings. I figure I'll be there tomorrow AM.

Lights went out while tuning in a church. By the time I got done it was pretty dim. Had to use a flashlight to write the bill and gather the tools.

10 at the college. Finishes that one until fall when I start another round there.

Nice week for some of you. Good job! 10 tunings Loren. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. at night well!

LOL Jerry, I did, trust me! And woke up to 7 inches of snow. Canceled my morning without guilt knowing I did 30+ this week!

Hey! Guess what?? Awwww, come on guess! You give up already???? OK! I tuned 4 pianos today! Woo hoo! Back to work again for 2 weeks then, I'm off to Florida for almost 3 weeks. Tee hee!

1. Steinway M, 45-90 ¢ flat. Lousy tuning thing.
2. Stark console, 35 ¢ flat. Lousing tuning PSO.
3. Kawai GM-10. 35 ¢ flat. Tuned okay.
4. Yamaha C-7. MUCH BETTER tuning piano. Still 20-30 ¢ flat but, it came out fine.

Ha ha, I get to do two in a row again! I NEVER work on Sunday. Personal belief's but, I did today... Since I've had my knee surgery, I've not been able to work for 3 weeks straight right? Well, in the mean time, I've sent out 2 different people to check out problems that we are encountering on one of our Steinway D's at the college. TWICE, I sent them out. Then, I sent out a 3rd person. None of them could fix it, or, maybe, 'would' fix it? They were all RPT's too! Kind of makes me mad. Well, not kind of, it DOES make me mad.

I received an email today from the college begging me to come and fix the soft pedal squeak. Quote: "It seems you are the only person who cares enough to be able to fix all of our problems any time we ever have one, you can always fix it and you always come out right away. Please hurry up and get better because we miss you! We have a concert Tuesday and this squeak is LOUD!"

Well, that did it. I took my wife and my son out there with me this afternoon to fix it. I cannot crawl around under the piano so, I figured they could be my "grunt and runt labor." hehehe. Wife's the runt. 5'2". Funny too because, the gal that called me and who is in charge of the pianos was there watching the whole time. We were all just chatting away. She was so happy to see me, I got a few hugs out of the deal too!

OK... The squeak was extremely loud! The person I sent in last, just tuned it last Thursday. He told me that he got it to squeak twice but that it would not do it again after that. Frankly, I don't think he tried very hard to get it to do it again but, be that as it may.... Here's where the fun came in...

The wife said, I think it's coming from under the key bed! As she lay on the floor listening to it squeak. My son said, I think it's the action frame. I said, I think it's the bass cheek block. The wife said, nope, I think it's down here. I can hear it coming from here. I listened, moved my head around, located the squeak and repeated, nope, it's the bass cheek block. My son Jer said, I'm taking out the action to lubricate the key frame, I think it's that. OK, wise move, I said but, Jer, the squeak is over here and do you know how to eliminate the cheek blocks as the suspect? No.... Ok... Remove the check block. He took it out, the squeak was gone. Put the cheek block back in and PUSH on it. SQUEEEEEAK! Wife said, I still think it's down here. We all started laughing. The gal in charge said, any bets as to who's right? I said, YEAH! I wanna bet!!! Who's up for a bet??? Silence.... I laughed and said, chickens! They said, ya, but, you have experience... I laughed again. Turns out, I was right, it was the bass cheek block. I cleaned out some mold with a smooth file that I had on hand that was in there and on the pin and then McLubed it. Once it was installed again, I played the soft pedal 50 times, I counted it and then, played it very slowly, over and over and over again because that is when it did it, and no squeak.... I laughed and said I WIN! I WIN! Awwwwww shut up my wife said and we all laughed!

Anyway, problem solved!