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Sam,

Ouch! Those springs are nasty-sharp. I did something similar replacing a damper pedal lever spring. I hate bleeding on customers' carpets, furniture, pianos, etc...

What I hate most is when you try to very slowly screw back the hammer into the rail and the screw drops underneath where it is inaccessible. You have to dismantle the action and shake it till the screw drops to the floor.

JUNMER

Junmer,

Get a telescopic magnet from an auto parts store. This helps at retrieving things from actions without drastic measures!

I went off early to my first tuning appointment with an empty stomach. It was breakfast time and as I opened the client's door, the smell of bacon came as a welcome guest to my nostrils. My tummy grumbled. The lady of the house said, "I'm preparing breakfast. What can I offer you?" I politely declined saying, "I've just had something before I came. I don't mind having a glass of water, though."

As I was strip muting the strings, the smell of bacon became stronger and stronger and I said to myself how stupid I was for having lied. After I have finished taking the inharmonicity reading and was about to start tuning, the lady set up a small table next to the piano and before I knew it a plateful of bacon sandwich, fried eggs, french fries, and orange juice was served steaming hot. I went, "Oh, you're so kind. You shouldn't have bothered." While saying this I was reaching in for some french fries and taking them into my waiting mouth.

When she turned her back, I thought it was best for me to do my first pass on the piano first before having a break and some chat perhaps. At that time, her husband emerged wearing a robe, holding the morning papers, sat down in front of "MY???" food and started eating it. He said, "Do you mind if I watch? I've never seen a piano being tuned."

And then the lady came back with a glass of water and placed it on top of the piano.

I felt I wish I hadn't been born at all!!!


JUNMER

This is a great idea. Thanks, Dave.

But in the first place, it is because of my magnetic screw driver that makes the screw fall.


JUNMER

Jumner,

Hahaha, I'm setting here laughing my head off at that one. That's a hilarious story!!! Good one!!
Sam's was prett good too.

Boy, can I ever relate to the screw falling out. Why is it that when it drops, it always goes underneath or in something where you can't grab it or get at it?

Come on you chickens, own up to something.... We've all done or said stupid things at one time or another. We all need a few more laughs.
I'll tell you another to hopefully, get you going.

One time, oh, probably about 20 years ago, I was all alone in a customers home. The piano hadn't been tuned in 20 years. They called because it was full of problems. Squeaks, rattles, clicks etc. I raised it a full tone to pitch fixed all of the other little crap and was happy to be done. So, I put the piano back together, threw my screw driver into my tool case and POP FIZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ SPLATTER..... I had hit my LARGE can of WD-40 with the tip of my screwdriver. WD-40 sprayed EVERYWHERE!!!! On the piano, on the walls, the carpeting, all over the fricken place. I spent the next hour or more, cleaning it all up. I did get it all off but, Whooweee, was I mad! :t:

For the most part (not always successful but almost), I solved the problem with a skinny little screw starter I bought from Joe Goss (mother Goose piano tuning. . .you can google him). It has a little "wedgie" at one end that snaps very tightly edge-wise into the screw slot, holding it very well, and the magnet is very powerful and because it is skinny, easy to get into the action to grab the screw if it does drop. The only irritant is that the device lays at the bottom of my tool kit with everything else stuck to the magnet! Seriously though, it does work and is one of the handiest little tools in the kit!

I like the claw-type screw starters that Schaff sells. I can get the screw starting to thread with them, and then switch to a screwdriver.

If screws fall in the action, I fish them to where I can get them out with a spring hook. It is tough if they fall behind the jack on an upright.

Looks like I'm the only one removing the action and shaking it. Do you somehow resort to that?


JUNMER

Sometimes.

Okay, I've got one from last month -

I opened up a grand piano lid to find a handy hammer, tightly screwed into it's handle. Fortunately, the owner was out of the room, so I discreetly tucked it into my case and took it home to my husband, who had lost his there about 12 months ago! Now he has two.

The WD-40 story was painful to read, Jerry! It reminded me that quite a large puddle of Brasso can be cleaned off of a Steinway keybed.

Just last night around 10 pm the pastor from a local church left me a message wondering if I had been by to pick up my check. He then said because I have it. It was either lost or stolen from the church mail slots. When I called today to find out more, he explained I had been a suspect in an armed robbery. Seems just across the street a hold up occured. The bandit must have rifled through the mail slots in search of money, finding cheques he tossed them. The police contacted the pastor to explain they were looking for the "Piano Guy", a suspect. After police described the perp as a one armed bandit, the pastor assured them that I had two functioning arms. Thankfully I was taken off the suspect list. YIKES!!

Richard,

That must have been a weird experience. Glad you managed to stay out of jail!

Almost 30 years ago when I first got into the piano biz, 18 pianos were stolen from the store I worked for. I ended up on local TV as the lead in to the commercial before the story--they filmed me moving a piano onto a truck with my partner. I was thinking, "great, instant suspect." Never did get questioned, though.

On the other hand, they never found out what happened to those pianos....

Gee, the idea of someone being convicted of a crime he did not commit, escaping from jail, and going on the lookout for a one-armed man sounds like it would make a great plot for a TV series or a movie!

Richard, I for one am glad we will never see a headline: Bandit Piano Guy Terrorizes Mail Slots in Canada. hehe That wasn't funny to you, I'm sure..

So glad your two arms got you off!!!!! I think I'd have had a stroke if the cops had shown up to arrest me for something like that.

One of the most stupid stupid things I have done lately was around Christmas of 2006. I had a full day of tuning. When I got home, I sat my tool bag down and began taking my checks out of my pocket. Alas!!!! One was missing. I went back to my auto and did a police type search. Tore everything but the seats and carpet outta that sucker!!! Still no check. Well I decided it was lost; gone forever. There are no honest people left in the world except Jerry Groot and me, and sometimes I aint so sure about Jerry..hehehehehe (Just kidding Jerry!!!!!!!)

To get to the point of this epistle, I had dropped the check from my pocket (pulling out my keys I suppose). A guy from the church found it in the parking lot, called the lady whose name and phone number was on the check (how embarrassin'!!!!!!!), got my address and he mailed it to me. Now I have to confess there are at least three honest people in the world, Jerry, me and that guy from the church. I now put all checks written to me in the glove compartment, so I wont lose them. Sure am glad you're not the Bandit, Piano Guy or I'd be spillin' the beans to the wrong guy, especially if you ever got down this way!!!!

The Steinway Pedal thread got me to thinking of one of my more embarrassing moments in the piano industry.

Many years ago, my partner and I delivered a 6 foot or so Kawai for a wedding. The piano had to go up about a dozen outdoor steps onto this platform. Everything was set up for 200+ people to witness the ceremony in a hoity-toity part of town (Atherton, CA for those who know the area). We got it up the stairs and took off for the next delivery.

It was one of those busy days where the sales guys had us jumping hither and thither, back and forth, up and down, so we were kind of in a hurry, which, as we all know, can cause problems.

Long story short, my boss got a call from an irate and irrational wedding mom saying, "they broke the piano!"

We hightailed it back to the scene of the wedding, and there they were, all 200 + guests, musicians, bride, groom, and irate mom, ready to lynch me.

I tried the piano, and sure enough, all the dampers were off the strings. I got on my back under the piano, and put the pitman back into it's hole in the trap lever. Voila, done!

Needless to say, I did NOT bow for this audience. But I did learn to ALWAYS check the pedals when delivering a piano!

I love that story Dave!!! I would love to have seen the look on that Mom's face. I dont think I would have set foot in that place without a bodyguard!!!! hehe

I used to wear ties. I say USED TO WEAR TIES.... Until, that is, this incident occured. There were more of these "incidents" that led up to this event, but this one took the cake and broke the camels back.

I was working on an old upright. I had JUST finished with the final filing of the hammers with 600 grit wet/dry sand paper. Had just finished shining the hammer rail with pretty ornate cute litte things on it when I leaned forward one last time to inspect my work. When I leaned back, the tag on the inside of my tie, you know, the one where we tuck the tongue into it to keep it out of the way other than tucking it into our shirts between the buttons when we're cheating?? That tongue, not the one hanging out "our face." It caught on one of the fronts of the hammers. I was pulling back, turning to walk away all in one movement. It pulled the action off from my bench, turned it sidesways, slide the corner of the treble bracket off the side and you guessed it to begin with, SMASHED all over the floor hitting everything else in sight.

Not only did several hammers break off, but, the end bracket also snapped right in half. As if that wasn't bad enough already, I found at least 15 hammers that now had very loose hammer flanges that needed repinning.

Can you hear ME NOW???? My wife's friend could. scared the pants off from her. She left very quickly! I think she thought I went insane. I had to cancel my appt to return it that afternoon to repair the dang thing instead.

Ties are evil. What a nightmare!