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Joined: Jul 2008
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Don't worry, no big deal.
2 days after the delivery of my Grotrian in Paris, I tumbled on the Halogen lamp, the lamp hit the piano and made a big dent on its side, the halogen bulb blew up as a small bomb and burned several places on 6 white keys.
I called the dealer, they fixed the big dent at no time, in house service (I gave the key of my house to them, when I came home from work, the big dent disappeared completely). As courtesy, dealer did not charge me on the dent, but they did not do any thing on the white keys.
I brought my piano from France to USA, I asked a technician to regulate my piano, this guy is also a rebuilder, so I asked him if he can fix the 6 white keys, after regulating, he worked on burned white keys, 6 white keys become as shiny as new; only one has a very tiny spot that I need to focus to see where it is, and this technician did this service for FREE! (I'm his faithful customer in the last 8 years)
In summary: damages to woods or plastic parts (keys) can be fixed, sometimes free depending on your relation with dealers, or technicians, some people do free for you if you are a good customer and they provide this fix as an appreciation to your trust, fair behaviour.
Last edited by hoola; 02/21/17 04:41 PM.
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Hello,
well I do not think this artist will do it for free for sure. It is virtually perfect -- one can see small "waves" in the mirror image if looking from the right angle in the right light; these waves one can see on other spots also -- I guess simply the surface is not completely flat. But the dent is gone completely.
Best
Hermes
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Joined: May 2002
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I keep a cover on my piano. I once had an 1869 Rosewood Steinway grand. It was a stunningly beautiful piano that a friend's cat walked across. The oils in the cat's feet left permanent marks on the lid. Covers protect pianos nicely.
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Hermes, glad to hear that the traumatic scratch is no longer  Hoola, what a crazy story! Thanks for sharing!
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Don't worry, no big deal.
2 days after the delivery of my Grotrian in Paris, I tumbled on the Halogen lamp, the lamp hit the piano and made a big dent on its side, the halogen bulb blew up as a small bomb and burned several places on 6 white keys.
I called the dealer, they fixed the big dent at no time, in house service (I gave the key of my house to them, when I came home from work, the big dent disappeared completely). As courtesy, dealer did not charge me on the dent, but they did not do any thing on the white keys.
I brought my piano from France to USA, I asked a technician to regulate my piano, this guy is also a rebuilder, so I asked him if he can fix the 6 white keys, after regulating, he worked on burned white keys, 6 white keys become as shiny as new; only one has a very tiny spot that I need to focus to see where it is, and this technician did this service for FREE! (I'm his faithful customer in the last 8 years)
In summary: damages to woods or plastic parts (keys) can be fixed, sometimes free depending on your relation with dealers, or technicians, some people do free for you if you are a good customer and they provide this fix as an appreciation to your trust, fair behaviour. Btw -- congrats to your Grotrian! -- somewhat similar to Sauter; very high quality. The repair of this scratch I had will not be cheap though.. :-( Q: is the big dent completely away; did they manage to make the surface completely flat again? I cannot see any trace of the dent but I can see a small wave in the mirror image if one looks at it from an angle. But it is impossible to locate the dent even if I look closely.
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Joined: Jul 2008
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1/ It seems that it complete went away, I never see anything that itches my eyes.
BTW, black shiny color is the one that shows easily any defect (wavy etc...) this happens on car which are less shiny than piano as well as piano. Don't try to clean and make it shiny.
Do not look from angle then in a few days the sore feeling will be settled.
2/ By the way, I bought a piano cover from XYZ 4 years ago(if you want I will PM you because pianoworld does not allow things like advertisement), even XYX asked me to make a pattern on paper and send to them so they can customize the cover and make it perfect fit, but they never use the pattern; they just sent me a stock piano cover that looked so bad (but the material is top quality, better than any other companies). Instead of returning it, I put the ugly cover on my piano, drew line with chalk then cut it myself, then I hired someone to use sewing machine to sew it. It fits pretty well.
Recommendation: buy or make a cover to protect the piano, we can always hit it when we are absent minded. My son grows up from 1 to 12 now, always plays with his toys near the piano, thanks to the cover, I never have any worry.
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Joined: Feb 2017
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I do feel for you having a small scratch on your pride and joy, but I'm sure it could be fixed at a cost. But really scratches on any furniture are pretty inevitable sooner or later and the first few always seem to stand out! We used to cover our nice polished cherry dining table and then after a while realised we couldn't even see the nice finish due to the table cloth always being there. So we removed the cover and of course it has now picked up a number of minor scratches from use, but at least we can actually admire the table and you don't really notice the scratches after a while and in fact they add to its patina. At some future point we could always choose to have it restored, but I doubt we ever will.
Honestly you are not in a good place if this stuff seriously bothers you and especially if you end up hating your kids over it! Or on the other hand maybe you are extremely lucky to have this as your main worry in life!
P.S. Our cat put claw marks on an expensive chair we had and at the time I was livid. The cat died a few years ago and now those little claw marks bring back fond memories of him. Just imagine the same scenario with your kids!
Last edited by Peakski; 02/22/17 07:56 AM.
Roland GP-607
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Actually, in daylight one can see that the whole surface (circle about 25 cm = 10 inches) around the repair spot has another texture from the sanding machine. However, the artist worked with the whole surface once; then it was good. But there was still some white mark which I wanted fixed. He came back and the white mark disappeared; and yes the dent is gone but now all these small tiny scratches all over appeared instead... the texture of the finish is different; is this really acceptable?
Probably it was the wrong decision to buy a brand new grand.. Ok it is better now but I have to say it is far from perfect. Not as perfect I thought yesterday; when it was darker.
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Sounds like he made a quick job of it - those circles are a sign he did not do all the steps down to the really fine buffing.
To make all that disappear, the whole surface needs doing - this would be a job taking an hour and a half perhaps total for an experienced polisher taking his or her time with it.
I do not know how you are insured, but might be worthwhile investigating wether or not yours covers damages like this. We had a mis hap with a brand new 4K tv a little while ago, and because I was in the room and attempted to stop my little one from carving that Z into the screen with the toy he had in his hand, and the tv was less than a month old, our insurance covered all of the damages..
Scratches like this in a polished surface you could have repaired by any furniture or car polishing expert - often times the insurance company will have connections to craftsman at the ready.
Roland HP605|Senheiser HD558|MSFT Surface Pro 4|coffee
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Yeah -- it seems so. Concerning insurance; well I have an insurance, but will it cover HIS mistakes?
I think I will call him and ask him to polish the surface again -- that seems the only thing to be done.
But is it acceptable to pay for a 2nd job where the outcome is actually not that great. As I said he was here 2 times. First time it went quite ok, but there was a small white mark still. 2nd time he got rid of that white thing but with all those circles in the finish. Maybe I should ask someone else; the proble is that there are only 2 people in Sweden (of what I know) that knows how to deal with polyester. The other guy lives far away -- so that is going to be very expensive.
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So now I called him and he said that it could be that since the polyester is warmed up when working on it it can happen that some structure appears after it cools down; but he agreed to come back and redo the polishing.
Story to be continued next week..
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From what I know from a friend who works on polyester and epoxy hulls it is a little more slow going than say car finishes - probably because one does not want the resin to heat up and become soft during the polishing process..
Hm - things like craftsman mistakes are covered in our home insurance for example but how this relates to items Ãn the home - something to invoke only when the craftsman involved is either unwilling or not competent to fix the issue.
Roland HP605|Senheiser HD558|MSFT Surface Pro 4|coffee
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I don't know how long the technician worked on my piano to fix the dent, but it was a huge, deep dent, not a scratch.
My halogen lamp was aiming toward the ceiling, it had an angular pole with edges, one edge would hit the bord of the piano and carved deep into it, but I see nothing now.
The work was so well-done that 25 years later, with up and down temperatures (I moved from Paris, France to Los Angeles, USA, very dry), the fix was not shrunk at all, and it blended perfectly to the surrounding, same texture, same shade of black polyester.
It's a happy ending!
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Finally the piano was sent to the Sauter factory in Germany, since nobody here (Sweden) seemed to be able to work on polyester properly. Now it is like new again :-) Long story -- happy ending. This ends the thread I guess.
All the best to you all,
Hermerik
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Congrats! I suppose it was either getting it fixed or getting used to the damage 
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It was fixed, excellently by the masters at Sauter. :-)
/Hermerk
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Was it very expensive? Or did they take pity on you and give you a discount?
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It was actually not super expensive. However, the dent/scratch was not so deep and they did not need to redo the whole finish. The work was really impeccable, and my insurance gratefully backed me so it ended up well, perhaps 1000$ for me.
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That is great news! You should have many many years of enjoyment with your fine instrument!.
Steve
Bösendorfer 170
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It was actually not super expensive. However, the dent/scratch was not so deep and they did not need to redo the whole finish. The work was really impeccable, and my insurance gratefully backed me so it ended up well, perhaps 1000$ for me.
This does not surprise me. I have visited the Sauter factory in Speichingen. Their manufacture is not huge like others in Europe, but quite modern and top notch. Larry Fine rate Sauter pianos in he top tier. However in Europe people still do not rate Sauter as belonging to the top tier when compared to Boesendorfer, Bechstein, Bluthener, Grotrian-Steinweg or Steingraeber. One dealer in Lyon who carried both Sauter and Grotrian-Steinweg confirmed to me in 2015 that indeed Grotrian-Steinweg was rated above Sauter like many other dealers in Europe. For instance he claimed that for instance even though Sauter and GrotrianSteinweg both used the Renner action, Grotrian-Steinweg adapted the action in a way that is "better"(?). Anybody in Europe can explain to me the discrepancy between Larry Fine rating and the one of the many European dealers regarding Sauter pianos. Perception vs reality?
VuongMinh Duc
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