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I ran into a Currier Console with the laminated wood plate today. I wonder how many of these were made? I've seen four in my life, and the plates had broken in two of them. I explained the weak plate issues to the customer, and had them sign a liability release before I tuned the piano. It ended up 37 cents flat, and the pitch raise came up surprisingly stable. I told the customer, I'd like to raise the pitch more with each successive tuning, but she is hesitant, not wanting the plate to snap. I have another one down here at pitch, so they can hold at 440...........

Fired up the snowblower and pointed it towards OAKLAND!

Yea, Mine's pointed the same direction! The prevailing winds are a bit problematic though.

My snow blower was too small for the snow we got - I had drifting across my short two-car driveway. I feel lucky to have a neighbor with a big blower willing to lend a hand! Lots of shoveling and finally took the car out around 7pm. Very quiet out, most everything closed up, though the local tavern was doing a brisk business!

Not sure if I'll get out tuning today.

Ron Koval
chicagoland

I watched the news this morning Ron, Chicago really got blasted!!! The largest snow storm in history there they said. Ours wasn't much better but, I think, we can get out today. I'm working at the college so, I'm not on a time frame to get there and besides, I'm still waiting for my son to climb out of bed too! But, I don't mind. I don't feel like working today anyway!

Over here on the east side of MI we only got 7-9", just another MI winter with the news over hyping the situation.

We only got about a foot here and although I got a late start, I got everything done. Driving was exhausting! Today it is bright and clear, traffic moving but with icy spots and temperatures below zero F. (about -22 C.) I have three at a church today, one grand and two studios, plus one private customer, so I should be home by 5 PM. A relatively easy day!

I just hope they have the sidewalks etc., shoveled on campus at Calvin! It is NOT fun to walk through that crap carrying a tool box for a couple of blocks. I try and park as close to the building as possible even driving right up to it in some cases. Rank has is privileges. Or, is that rank called, being an old fart?

Les, you got lucky!! School is closed here for the 2nd day. Yesterday, even Calvin College closed which is the first time in over 20 years they said.

They closed a bunch of places yesterday and it wasn't that bad. Drifting was the biggest problem.

Over X mas break, I changed out a set of lacquer on a concert grand. I spent this week adding felt to the new set of lacquer till I finally had a set of hammers. Important concert on that piano Saturday night. Finished voicing about 8 pm and decided to change buildings and tuned a D, a B, and an L. Done by 10:45 pm. First tuning 7am Friday.

It's been pitch raise city around here lately. 100c, 125c, 75c....everything is flat flat flat flat flat.....

And dry dry dry! I've been plugging away at my college for the past month tuning, I did 59 of them so far and about 20 homes plus, I've done a LOT of repairing and regulation too. Along with going to doctor appointments, getting x-rays, I've gotten a crown etc. I'm almost done with Calvin now though. For this round, I think I will have done 70 tunings there.

I did find that they eliminated about 20-25 pianos. Surprised me. They got digital junk instead but do you know what is very interesting? I've been in there almost every day for the past month and only a VERY FEW times, has anyone been using the digital stuff. They are always practicing on the real pianos instead. That says something in and of itself I think.

I tried to end the day early today, only taking three appointments. No such luck! The second appointment was one of those with the brand name, "Grand". EEK!!! Now, this is one brand that even I am tempted to assign the favorite three letter acronym to. They seem to be in a class of pianos designed only to last 15-20 years at best.

I arrived and a young guy hobbled to the door with a cast on one foot. He told me he had been run over by a fork lift at work. OUCH!!! He said he was getting the piano tuned as a surprise for his girlfriend.

I played the A3 key and that was enough right there. Yikes! Way low in pitch! Upon measuring, I found it to be over 50 cents flat but the treble was a half step flat of that and the high treble a full step or more flat of -60 cents. UGH!

Still, the action was in fine condition. It didn't really need regulation, only a few hammers needed to be aligned and the soft pedal rod put back in and adjusted so that it would not fall back out, lol.

My first inclination was to tune it at -50 cents. The treble and high treble would still need some serious pitch raising even at that.

The guy seemed to know some things about music, however, despite his youth and blue collar appearance. Turns out, there was a stack of piano literature next to the piano fit for a piano performance major at the university. He proceeded to tell me how his fiancée and her sister were such great musicians and both played piano, guitar and sang. He expressed how he loved to listen to them for hours on end.

He said his fiancée had been searching for a tuning hammer for a few weeks so she could do something about this terrible sounding piano but had been unable to find one. Being laid up, he decided to call the dealer I work for and order a surprise piano tuning for her for when she got home that evening.

I tried to persuade him to accept a tuning at a low pitch but he said it was very important that the piano be tuned properly as he put it. "I just know she would not be happy with it tuned low, he said".

I went through all of the precautions: string breakage and even the possibility of a broken plate. I looked at the soundboard. It was laminated and therefore had no cracks. The bridges were also laminated and had no splitting. The pinblock was visible and there was no separation. There was no rust. The tuning pins were adequately firm but not doggedly tight. It actually tuned easily! I told him this was the very best example of a piano from that manufacturer that I had ever seen.

I acquiesced and said that I would be willing to give it a try and would be as careful as I could but if strings started breaking and in particular, if I saw any structural failure, I would have to back off.

I did the initial pitch raise starting at -10 cents and progressing to +20 at the end of the high treble. I made a counterclockwise movement to each pin first and gently tapped each one to the calculated overpull and beyond and settled it back. The first pass took about 45 minutes.

That left the piano at -20 cents and the treble and high treble still quite flat to the rest. The second pass took another half hour of careful pitch raising. The third pass in the middle was quite close but again the middle of the treble was a bit flat but manageable. The high treble, after extremely large overpulls, had managed to cooperate.

The fourth pass proved to be a fine tuning! I demonstrated the "pipe organ" effect and he was blown away by it. I then played and sang a song. He said that it didn't even sound like the same piano and "I even got a performance out of it!" Apparently, he is a true music lover. He said, "There will be one very really happy girl in this modest apartment tonight!"

I charged double fee but got a $25 tip on top of that!

It just goes to show, in my view, that you can't prejudge any make or model of piano or the client who wants your services.

I was over an hour late to the next appointment but had called ahead and they were fine with that. I still got home about 5 PM after making a nice deposit in the bank. I didn't even take any cash back because I still had most of the $150 lottery ticket money I won on Tuesday in my wallet. I had seen a large jackpot, so I bought a $1 ticket. No jackpot but quite a prize anyway.

That was a nice addition to the $600 prize I won last summer and went a long way toward a new big screen TV. I am now collecting DVDs of symphony and oratorio performances conducted by Herbert von Karajan, my favorite conductor of all time. I have, for example, all of Beethoven's nine symphonies that he conducted with his eyes closed. Truly amazing! I am also building up a collection of films on blu-ray discs. The clarity is amazing!

Three hours before his scheduled Saturday concert at the U, the artist called in sick with swine flu. So the coordinator of piano studies, excellent concert pianist in his own right, stepped in to play the concert. Knowing Laurent liked a bright piano, I polished the hammers in addition to the pre-concert tuning. Laurent had been judging students from 7am to 5pm all day, so he had about 2 hours to go home, eat, dress, and put a concert together. Laurent had no time to practice on the piano prior to the concert, so he spent the first 15 minutes of the concert playing excerpts from his first selection, explaining to the audience the musical translation to a love story as he went. I realized he was not only teaching the audience, but he was testing the piano, getting a feel for it as he went.

After the teaching session ended, Laurent played the whole piece, and several others as well, for a 90 minute concert to a packed house, and a well deserved standing ovation.

Upgraded a Damppchaser system on a grand in an auditorium. The grand is always covered when not in use and the light panel is not visible, so I put in a light panel that beeps when the water is low. The standard 50 inch hose was pretty short and was pinched between the soundboard and posts, so put in a 7 foot hose. And the cord was not long enough to reach the outlet where the piano is normally stored, not to mention the inconvenience in tucking the cord out of sight and then digging out again when needed. So I installed a box with a male plug on it that an ordinary extension cord plugs into. Something like this, but with the prongs sticking out of a cover:



I am hoping this will help keep the Damppchaser plugged in and watered.

Hopefully the "human element" regarding this symptom acquiesces.

Today was a Zender console, a British 85-note piano from about 1978, according to the owner.

This:



From around 1900-1910. Was a quarter-tone flat.

Will require a touchup soon.

Yesterday, I tuned a Sohmer console that was 1/2-1 - tone flat. This was one of the VERY NICE tuning Sohmers. Came to pitch beautifully, and in two passes, it came out great considering!!!

Then tuned a Yamaha console done a year ago. Nice piano. That's it for yesterday.

Today, I'm bringing back a bench that was broken away at the sides. Glued and fixed that then I'm repairing an artist bench where the Allen screw fell out of the round turn knob on the bench at the college. Then tuning a Steinway B, a piano I've not tuned before and then a Steinway D for a concert tonight. Nice days for me lately! Finally!

Tomorrow, oh, I forgot tomorrow. Tee hee. I have the day off!!! HA HA.

Been re-hairing bows for the orchestra department. Just got a re-supply of horse hair this week and had bunch of bows waiting for me...

And a stop for a little naugahide Wurli on the way home.

Ron Koval