One Heintzman & Co 6ft. grand, one Heintzman & Co full size upright, one Lesage full size upright, and one 52 inch grand by Zimmerman. Yes really it is that short….4’6” or something?

A very nice, slower, relaxing week for me. Loving every second of it.

Monday: Tuned a Kawai RX-7. Looked at at old Washburn upright. The client is contemplating fixing verses replacing. Did not tune. Gave an estimate anyway. Tuned a Steinway M. Has loose tuning pins, but holding, needs rebuilding, she wants done, contacted my rebuilder and she wants refinished.

Tuesday: Voted! Tuned a Kawai UST-8. Tuned a Baldwin Acro not tuned since 1986. A Groot tuned it last. It was at 438-439. Raised to pitch. That's it! Play time boys and girls!

Voted! High turnout too. I voted 10 minutes after polls opened and I was #41 in our little Podunk polling place. Then did some maintenance work on a pair of Yamaha consoles at a church: Reshaped hammers, voiced, vacuumed keys, keybed, and interior on both. After that, a private tuning on an old, 1926 Kranich & Bach grand (ex Welte). Needs rebuilt, but not a bad sounding piano at all.

Now gonna sit back and watch election results all night.

80 degrees in the SF Bay Area today...

Tuned an older but nice C-3 Yamaha, a real beater old Wurly spinet, an old G-3 Yam, and a Yamaha P-22 with a pitch raise.

Tomorrow I'm going to San Francisco to tune an older Baldwin and an older Steinway M. I may go early to see the World Series Champion victory parade. I don't know if I'll be able to avoid it even if I want to. The crowd is predicted to be a million people! Holy Cow!

Mixed bag today. First a piano playing gig for an hour for a benefit. After that, headed off to a college to fix a dead not on a D; simple fix (loose hammer flange screw). After that, a 125 cent flat 1978 Kohler & Campbell console that probably had never been tuned. From there, an old Schroeder upright that's still kicking.

Tuning a 78 Kohler and Campbell is next to impossible. The number of individually beating treble strings one is likely to encounter in those monsters is overwhelming. I far prefer the Korean K and Cs.

Tuned a Kawai console, looked at an old upright, Baldwin Monarch. Some DOPE tooner worked on it. Should have had a camera. Part of the bass bridge cap was split off and gone. The top half. All of the last octave or so in the upper part of the bass were missing bridge pins. I mean, ALL OF THEM WERE GONE! Guess what the fix was? Come on guess! OK, you give up already???... Nails. Thick nails. It worked, to a point. The was no angle, you know, the S between the bridge pins, it was pretty much straight.

The hammers were only half filed. Regulation was yucky too. Bad job.

Then, tuned a small Yamaha grand. Then off to the college. Was told E-2 string was broken on the Steinway B. I was relieved to find that it was actually, Eb -6 and E-7 that was broken.

I was told that A-3 was sticking too. It was not... So, I checked all of the A's. . Nothing sticking. So, I played all of the notes as fast, as slow and in between that I could. Nothing sticking.... Probably sticking now though. Then, did a fast run through touching up the tuning

But, I at least got a chance to let my son install the broken strings today. I showed him how judge the proper length of string so that both tuning pins would get the right amount of coils. The same amount as the others around it.

I showed him how to get the becket in line with the others, how to line up beckets on both sets of tuning pins. How to give and take on the strings so the other tuning pin had a bit more string to line up the becket. He found that fun, interesting and he did a great job. I had to finish it up by tightening up the coils and stuff but, oh, crap, I just remembered, I forgot in all of that to seat the new strings on the bridge!!!! OOPS!!! Oh well, I have to go back in a day or two to touch up the new wires anyway, we'll do it then. If I can remember. Note to self. What was that you were supposed to do again?

Had a “Tuner’s Choice” appointment. The customer had two pianos, one they had for a while and one given to them and wanted my opinion as to which is better. The one they had was a Sterling spinet bought from a college that was a practice piano. The one given to them was an art deco Knabe console that had light home use that I guess was from the 30s. It was not a tough decision, the Knabe won. It had an interesting scale. The break was at D3-D#3 with the next four notes being wound bichords and the four after that unwound bichords. The tone was even enough that I had to look to see which I was playing when checking progressive thirds. There was some small discrepancy going on that I couldn’t quite figure out, but it was so minor that it really didn’t matter. All the fifths had good tone which is unusual for a console. I wish the console manufacturers of the seventies had learned from these guys!

Some piano makers from the 70's and 80's were so concerned with foreign competition and shrinking sales, they forgot the product has to sound and play like a piano.

Got my 3rd tutoring lesson in tuning yesterday, working aural ET, feeling pretty good so far. While in the shop, I resolved a couple of grands with buzzes. One was a S&C with the PNOscan strip installed, seems it was buzzing from lose screws. The other was a Yam with a lose lid guide plate. Felt good to find both.

went to the library to do genealogical research. I think that was what I needed to do. Saw a rainbow last night for about 3 seconds, John saw it too.

Today was the CFIIIs again, and a low Ab was hitting the Helpinstill pickup. I had to eliminate other suspects, but finally the guy who belonged to the pickup came out and adjusted it. It looked like there was at least 2 or 3 mm. to the pickup. That was not enough, though.

I have this one church that has a Helpinstill pickup system that gets moved around constantly. I don't know who's doing it but, it's a pain. I can't count the amount of times they've called complaining that the treble hammers were not playing at all. Well, DUH! Someone moved it, again! Move it back and leave it alone. Always solves the problem for some reason.

7 tunings today. 6 at a college: Bosendorfer grand, 3 Mason & Hamlin consoles (60's vintage), 60's Wurlitzer console and a Yamaha P22. From there, went to the local playhouse to tune their Disklavier. Nice full day!

Helpinstills are a pain. Cords buzz on the board, techs leave boxes and metal junctions on the plate and board and complain about buzzes. Set a few good voice mikes and mix it right is plenty good.

Did a Kawai grand and Yamaha Studio for a elder care place then traded off my RAV4 for a 2010 Highlander Hybrid. See if the gas economy is all its cracked up to be.

Seven more at a college today. Two B's, Three Yamaha P-22's, a Boston UP-118S and an old Mason & Hamlin studio.

Monday, tuned a Kawai K-2 and a Yamaha P22 in a home. Then, tuned a Yamaha C-1 (I think) and a Yamaha U1.
Tuesday: Nice day. Tuned what I'm TRYING to tune a day... 3! A Schimmel 52" (about) upright, a Steinway O and a Kawai UST-7.
Wednesday will be: A Yamaha GH1, a Kimblah spinet, a Kawai RX-6, Schimmel T120. Then, volunteering as a driver for the Ronald McDonald House.
Thursday will be: A Yamaha grand, an I don't know and another I don't know. 3 again.
Friday: A Yamaha studio, Kawai UST-8, an old Grinell upright, an I don't know yet and then, an appraisal of something... Can't seem to keep it down to only 3 a day!

Tuned a Shigeru-Kawai SK-3, what a great piano.
A Weinbach upright that has okay tone and tunes well, but the action is godawful noisy. Some of it was from the jack springs. Proteked them without high expectations that it would last.

Tuned a Steinway M Queen Anne from the early 80s. Replaced a string, then re-coiled a complete botch job on another string. Nice sounding piano, but it plays like a tank. The keyframe said "perma free action," but the action didn't have teflon bushings.

Went to fix a problem note on an old 1880s Steinway. Turns out the jack on the middle C wip was broken. No replacement was available in my parts pin. I hope they decide to exercise the trade-back option with the store they purchased it from...

Tuned a 70s everett 6000 series console, not tuned for maybe ten years. Only the mid range was 5 cents flat or a little more, the rest pretty much at pitch. What a great little piano! Nice tone, tuned well, really fun to play. Such a bummer they had to close the factory.

Permafree 2 has teflon-impregnated felt.

If the jack arm came unglued, I have glued those back together.

I worked on an 1890's Steinway AI today, dealing with pedals, and a bass string that broke at the bridge. I tied another piece of wire on until I can get a replacement.

Wasn't it right around '82 that Steinway nixed the teflon bushing and went to the Permafree II?

When those jacks break, check out the action regulation. It could be the jack is slapping against the whippen. I had one of these up north - but the customer refused to get action work done. I fired him.

Ohhhhh, do I wish I could sleep in this morning!!!!!!!!! One of those mornings where zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz would be just perfect!!!

That is the case; too much aftertouch. This is a new customer who just bought this piano from a store I contract for. The piano is in a tight corner in a dimly lit room. Hard to get at, hard to see, not much room to finagle the action out. The customer is not interested in spending $ on action work, even though they got it fairly inexpensively, as Steinways go. This would be a good rebuild project, methinks.

Tuned a 1966 Story & Clark console, nice piano, pins are very predicable, has a couple of tubby bass strings though. First tuned it back in July - they just purchased it- and it was a whole semitone off, was 23cent low today, did a pitch raise and tune today.

Day three of college tunings. Tuned 7 today. 3 Hamiltons, a Yamaha P22, an Everett console, a 90's Chickering grand (Samick), and a Mason & Hamlin console. 2 more days ought to wrap it up.

Stencil grand by major maker - Sticky hammer flanges due to poor seasoning of wood parts. Tuned, and made appointment to remove, test, and re-pin each sticky flange. Also needs voicing. Then to a Wurli spinet I tune every year for a wonderful old lady. She has two organs, and several guitars in addition to the spinet. I hope she calls me for many more years! Then a floor tuning raised 60 cents to 442. I almost couldn't get the fall board screw out. Tiny, soft, easily stripped screw. GRRR. Then a new customer who's piano was only 5 cents flat, which almost never happens. I fixed her broken lid hinge. # 5 was a Richmond old upright, good initial build quality, but this is worn and pins too loose to raise 30 cents to 440. The customer was relieved the piano was worn, as she really wants to replace it down the road. I tuned it 30 cents flat for the time being.

Only 3 on Thursday, but I don't start till 1pm. I'm taking the scooter out in the morning.

A C-7 Yamaha that's pretty tired at the University, an A B Chase upright from 1913 that must have been a great piano once (and still plays and sounds way better than it has any right to!), a Lester Grand that may have termites in a classroom at a school for underprivileged kids; a Franklin and a Shoninger BG at the school teacher's house, both in a sorry state.

A short time later, I got a call from someone with a really old piano they bought from an antique store without consulting a technician. They said it looks great, but it sounds very out of tune. Today's selection left me in no mood to wrestle with another can o' worms, so I (hopefully politely) declined.

Missed this one, but yesterday I did 6 more at the college. M&H studio, Steinway B, 2 Boston consoles, an Everett console, and finally an old beat up D. Three more today and the 30-piano round is done!

Started regulating an evestaff miniroyal mini piano. The majority of the keys had at least half of the key dip of lost motion. Incredible! The regulating screws were quite loose, so maybe that's the reason. Took up the lost motion and the keys magically work again! Customer complained of a previous tech who said the keys needed replacing. No idea what that would have achieved. Heard stories of this guy before, he runs the only piano shop in my area. Hate to think how many pianos he's servicing that are slowly going out of whack!
Now off for a nice weekend away

First piano, 90's Korean grand, filthy, pulling all kinds of debris, screws, crackers, pencils, etc. from soundboard and action. No aftertouch (many of these were delivered out of reg, and others were never put on the key banging machine so felts compressed in the home, instead of in the factory). I cleaned it, raised pitch and recommended a reg.

Number two Hamilton 401 at a church - cleaning crew was supposed to meet me out there. No one there. Called the contact, who called the cleaning crew, who had gone to get supplies. By the time they let me in, I had an hour to raise pitch 30 cents, and re pin a tight hammer flange at F3. Finished in an hour.

Number three, a small 5' or so Hardman grand. All original except for finish and key tops. Action needs a reg badly, but still a good piano. The beams were twice the size we see today.

Then, I went home and took the scooter out for an hour.

Finally, I attended the sound check for tomorrow's Beethoven piano concerto, to make sure the D I recently powered up was loud enough. It was, and the artist was very happy. I have to raise it to 442 Saturday afternoon for the concert Saturday night.