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

I did 5 today. First was Hamilton in a country church. They remembered to leave the heat on but forgot to unlock the door. Customers for 20+ years so I picked the lock. (Had to do this before.)

Next was Acoustigrande, Chickering Bros, 6' grand, circa 1920. Called a few weeks ago and told me 15 years ago I helped him flip it over as it was laying upside down on it's top and did I still charge $50? "I did what?? and ah, no a bit more than $50." Crazy old piano was just a few beats off the fork.

Next was Yamaha console for a elementary school librarian.
Next was Aeolian console for a retired teacher.
Next was a Pramberger console and the customers and I spent a least 30 minutes talking fishing. It's a good life.

Nothing. It snowed a lot here last night. My windshield wiper squirter thingy decided it would no longer squirt. (Yes, I filled it up and no, it is not frozen. I think the squirter thingy's motor is busted.) With all of the salt and wet snow on the roads, you couldn't drive for more than a mile without it. I had to cancel my day.

Your story Sam, reminds me of the time I too, picked a lock in a church. Not that it was the first time or anything... The janitor came 45 minutes later and asked me how I got in. I replied with a simple, well, I thought you left the door open for me? He said, you mean, you got in through an open door? Uh huh, I said. (Well? I did! After I opened it!) He gave me very puzzled look and left. I could hear this.... Open, click, click click, SLAM. Open, click, click click, SLAM. Open, click, click click, SLAM. For about 10 minutes he did that. He came back in finally and said, that is very strange. The door locks every single time! I had ALL I could do to keep from busting out laughing. As it was, I was laughing while he was slamming the door continuously.

With all the lockpicking, I suppose I have to expand my toolbox here...

Today no tuning, hard disk recovery. Power is very unreliable here in Finland right now because of the cold weather, and that messes with electronics.

-29 degrees celsius this morning (-20 F) :-O

You should have said, "I was planning on stealing one of these nice pews until you showed up".

No but seriously. I heard about someone who was going to tune a regular customer church piano and the door was usually a little sticky. It had to be pushed hard whenever he went in. Apparently, this time the door wasn't just stuck, but locked.
One push, two push, three really hard shoulder ram and down comes the entire door jam and all as he goes tumbling into the church.

I don't think the custodian found much humor in that one either.

I only tuned three today. First one was a new customer with a Kawai K-6 and then two older consoles. Replaced two broken strings on the last one that were mysteriously missing from the piano.

In all churches, I pull on the door to make sure that it locks behind me. In this one church, the door was, shall we say, unsafe? I gave it a yank and the whole dang handle pulled off the glass part of the door! Glass everywhere.

Jerry reminds me of a story a long time ago...

Church tuning in July, hot as blazes, side door on the west, full sunlight supposed to left open for me. Lady says, "it might be a little stiff. If it don't open, just give it a push." So, of course, door won't open. So I gives it a little push. No good. Church a ways off the road, don't know when I'm back again, so I gives it another push. OK, I should have quit then. But I gave it another GOOD shove and BANG, the whole door, door frame, trim falls into the church. ooopps...

Shoveled snow, got the snow blower working... Roads were clear, so the drive in went fine.

Glued a guitar, adjusted a flute and an alto saxophone. Flushed out a tuba (oh, will the fun ever end?) Unjammed the soft pedal on a practice room Wurli. Printed out a bunch of combinations because students can't seem to remember them after winter break.


After school I tuned a Yamaha upright in an elementary school that I tuned last year when it was 50%+ humidity. Today my little meter read 19%...

Ron Koval
chicagoland

...and who says piano tuners are wimps.

Sorry Sam. I may have just repeated your story unknowingly. It's a funny one.

No problem Bryon. It was my first and last, (hopefully) crash down of a door in pursuit of a piano tuning. There's dedication for you. As I remember the piano was terrible and it was Wednesday afternoon. After I got in I called the pianist. "Oh I forgot to unlock it! How did you get it?" She rushed down to the church. By then I had leaned the door against the wall and gathered up the pieces of trim and was half way thru the tuning. The church began to fill and deacons were patching the door. Everybody that came had the same question, "What happened to the door." The pianist fielded the questions as I pounded away. Talk about concentrating under duress...

Tried all day to avoid sanding trough a new finish and ate the black powdery stuff that got around the dust mask.

Tuned a Kawai 48" upright, a Seiler upright, did 4 hours worth of lubricating, key easing and leveling, hammer filing, flange repinning (and rebushing one....:-) on a 25 year old Steinway grand in a customer's home, then did a brief trouble shooting call on new Pramberger.

Yesterday I punched leads out of the fronts of the black keys on a Bergman upright to allow the action to function.

It's always interesting, one big reason I love this job.

Sounds great Dave. I like your style.

Hello, did you try those ones :

http://www.mirka.com/products_abranethd?

they also sell blocks with aspiration hose for hand sanding, very useful in customer's home.

I water/sand the polyester or PU finishes as much as possible.

Changed the belts on the snow thrower - mouse damage. I wonder if putting an old piano in the shed would keep the mice out of the yard equipment.

Just 3 today (Friday after all), a M&H grand, a Heintzman grand and a Heintzman console that was down the bottom of a hill at the end of a long country road. I found myself wishing I had put on snow tires as I descended the hill but I made it back out OK.

Sam's story about the church door reminds me of a story one of our chapter members tells about arriving at a customers house where the customer wasn't home. He thought he remembered being told to just walk in if they weren't there. The side door was a little sticky but it opened. He walked all through the house but he couldn't find a piano. On his way out the side door he met the owner walking in. He was an off duty cop. Wrong house, wrong street. The police were called.

Although he can see well enough to get around, this tuner is sight impaired and takes cabs from one appointment to another. He got a ride in a police car to the right address. Same street name, one is a court and the other is a crescent. Burglary tools, piano tolls, they all look the same don't they?

We seldom have weather issues in the SF area. The occasional hard rain, and snow at sea level every 30-40 years or so. We do, however, have the occasional earthquake. I was in the east San Jose Foothills on Thursday--pulling lead out of the aforementioned Bergmann--when the house started to creak, then shook madly for about 5 seconds. Nothing came down but for the notion that I might be standing on stable ground... The epicenter was 10 miles away from where I was in the same mountain range

Now there is one business hazard I never thought off: Earthquakes. Geezze. Hate to be voicing when that happened. Stab myself to pieces.

Today is AM appointment setting for the week and then some time off and honeydoos. Make it a rule not to tune on weekends. Sacred ground for me and the Mrs. If the weather is decent I'll work in my shop but it's been in the single digits for a week.

We seldom have weather issues in the SF area.

6" snow in San Francisco winter of 58

Kamin,
Thanks for the link, I am familiar with Mirka products. At the present I am using 3M Gold Hook It 1 and 2.
Sanding a water base Enduro product.

Well, I'm actually taking a Saturday off, but yesterday. . .

Warmed up the car (-17*F), drove 90 miles to tune Baldwin L for a piano teacher, her friend's Baldwin console (40c. flat), the seriously beat up Yamaha G2 at the high school, and the Schimmel 256 at the church.

Couldn't figure out why the third octave was 20c. flat on the Schimmel, until crawling underneath to discover someone had yanked out the humidifier plug from the D-Ch humidistat. The humidity measured less than 6%RH. I hope it at least stays in tune through Sunday services after plugging back in.

Sam, thanks for the laugh! I actually did send voicing needles through my thumbnail once (not earthquake related).

Like the way water base sands. Comes off like a fine talc. Gene do u use a circle sander? I use a 5" hook and loop air sander rigged to a small vac via a long 1 1/4 in flexible tube. Gets most of the dust. You can get down to 600-800 grit and do a hand rub satin or shoot another thinned semi-gloss coat and call it good as per Yamaha verticals. I've been using Target Coatings.