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My turn again! I get 2 turns in a row, whoopeee!

Looked at and gave an estimate on a Cable Nelson spinet made by Everett this morning. Had a reschedule come in last minute so, had a hole after that. Then, tuned 2 Steinway's. 1 B and one O. haha, just realized, there is a pun there, B 0!

Was supposed to tune another B but the darn door was locked and I don't have a key yet so, another time.

100 cent pitch raise on a newer Kohler & Campbell grand that someone bought at an auction, then a Grand spinet, followed by an old Gordon upright.

Turned in my resignation at work today. Go to part time through the end of November, then will be on my own tuning and repairing pianos. Big leap. But ready to be on my own again.

Way to go, Roy!

My first job was in a chateau, perhaps a model of the palace at Versailles, up on it's own hills surrounded by 20 or so acres of prime vineyard. I don't know how many bathrooms the place had, but I would guess at least 6, but probably more like 10. Tons of people on site doing various jobs, including yours truly. The money spent on this house could have balanced the budget in California. "Let them eat cake!"

Two Bosies in residence, one being the red and black giant that toured the world with the three tenors. The hydraulic apparatus that lifts the lid was not functioning, but I couldn't figure it out and turned it over to my pianoDisc installer buddy. So I pitch raised it, then tuned it. The other Bosie was your garden variety six and a half footer/80,000 dollar piano. Half way through the pitch raise, string 1 of C4 broke. This is understrung 17 1/2 wire that crosses the bridge right next to the plate strut. Kind of a PITA to repair, and my first ever on-the-job single string loop! All those years I wondered why they had that on the RPT test! But this was an omen of the last piano of the day.

It was a Wheelock upright, last tuned in the 60s, hand picked in 1934 for the owner's mom by her tuner granpa name of Doolittle. At 50-100c flat, I feared that the steel wound bass strings were not long for this world, and I was right. 3 of the last four bicords broke pretty quickly. I had warned the people....

Hadn't broken a string for months, either. When it rains, it pours.

Tuned and serviced a Steinway B,
set level and dip for a Short A Steinway
Had two people call at the same exact moment.
Phone company sent the Price shopper to me and the scheduler to voice mail.

a good day

I've been using the Stringer II tool sold by Pianotek for understring replacements. Now I don't know how I lived without it! It's so nice being able to quickly and easily replace those difficult strings without having to invent streams of new words in the process...

Turned what would have been a frustrating no-show into a ho-hum cancellation by calling to confirm the appointment the night before. It was for an understandable reason.

Yeah Loren, I love "the stringer." It really helps save time and prevents aggravation, especially with loop strings. I was actually borrowing one from another tech (for about a year!) and just last week he called and said "I want it back." I only needed it on one job in that time but now I'm probably jinxing myself, so its time to call Pianotek I guess...The bridge positioner part of the tool is awesome too.

Yesterday I started out tuning a nice M & H Model A - rebuilt very well within the last 10 years - a pleasure to tune...

Then a Marshall & Wendell 5-footer from the 20's that needed a huge pitchraise and about seven binding hammers realigned; this piano had no agraffes but sounded ok, although the trichord damper felts were more or less crushed due to the lack of consistent string spacing that agraffes provide. The funny part of this is that the fallboard lettering said "Marschall & Wendell" even though the plate casting was stamped "Marshall & Wendell." A refinisher's mistake, perhaps?

Then a brand new Estonia 190, a piano that I always love to tune and play. The last tuning of the day was supposed to be a factory fresh Blüthner Model 6 but it didn't arrive from JFK in time. So maybe Thursday for that one...

Today I get to practice/write all day long...

Yes, I've seen the stringer II and will probably buy one after this episode. It looks pretty cool. I've used lots of different tubular items, including brake line, brass tubing, pvc pipe. All that stuff got misplaced when I got a new car several months ago. Time to go hunting in the garage.

I also forgot to mention that the facilities guy at this job told me to park several hundred yards away from the house, which made the various back and forths to the car far more time consuming than desired....

First a hammer reshaping/voicing job on an old Hardman grand. These were not the original hammers, but were installed by another tech about 6 years ago, so it was a nice job. Hammers really sounded nice when finished. A little bit of lube on the knuckles to take care of jack friction and some squeaky creaky noise.

After that, an old Ivers & Pond upright sitting in a church basement. I expected it to be 1/2 step flat and instead found it about 30 cents sharp. I prepped myself for a pitch raise for nothing. Then went and gave an estimate on another upright. Nice day. Really enjoyed the voicing and maintenance work on the Hardman.

Tuned 3 Yamaha P22's 30 minutes away. Lowered all 3 about 1/4 tone to 440. Got there about 9:30, yapped for a bit and was home again by 12:30. Tuned last in April. Pianos had to be on pitch, they use them with each other and with other stuff and for concert junk. Practices etc.

Winter came early today......1st piano - Aeolian Winter Studio, 40 cent pitch raise, moisture damage, 3 center pins walking out, dead soundboard, needs reg.

Then on to an 1885 Steinway with original action parts. I filed hammers and did a bench reg over the weekend. The action slipped right in, and with a bit of voicing and tuning was ready to go. I'm amazed at how smooth the reg went on those old parts. The result was very even.

Then, Winter showed it's face again - a customer who had a "country music star" of sorts coming for dinner needed a tuning today on his Winter grand. I'd tuned this in 2008, and it had held pretty well, for a piano with an outer rim less than 1/2" thick.

I finished up, and noted the outside temp was 87 degrees as I drove away. Winter was over. I went home, fed my DAG some GRUB, and he wagged his tail.

The CFIIIs that had broken strings last week today. I came in and listened to the pianist playing it and winced before I remembered them. I told him what the problem was. It sounded good during the show.

The Steinway D yesterday sounded good, too, which was a bit embarrassing, because I have them on a campaign to replace the hammers. The piano is from about 1928, bought new for the building, and the hammers have been replaced once, but it is time to do it again, along with the repetition springs. Regular maintenance will keep it going without a complete rebuild, which they could not afford as easily, especially since it is on the second floor of the building. I replaced the strings 10 years ago, and with any luck they will last another 60 years.

1920 Gordon upright that was at pitch, followed by an 80's mode Kimball console and an 80's Wurlitzer spinet.

The last 2 days were Yammie days. P22's. Nice tuning pianos. I have it great right now. Cept'n for today. I have 1 Yamaha P22, 1 Baldwin Acro., 1 Kimblah, Winter, Spinet, 1 Aeolian spinet. The positive? I've tuned these pianos exactly 1 year ago today. The negative? Would be if I were to somehow find them 1/4 tone sharp. I wonder if they would stay there?

Installed a Dampp-Chaserâ„¢ system in a Wurlitzer vertical in a church, then tuned two 1960's vintage Hamiltons at an elementary school. Those old blonde Hamiltons are work horses! They keep going and going and going....

I take back my last post. Turns out, I had to tune 5 pianos today. My son tuned one of them, I had to touch up some octaves and a few unison's but, 3 of them were Yamaha P22's, 1 was an Everett studio and 1 was a Story & Clark spinet. Had to raise pitch on all 5 of them. Still, 1/2 days' worth of work for me. I love it!

First a 1969 Acrosonic that had to come up 30 cents. New customer, and this was another one of those pianos whose top 4 notes have never been tuned; they were around 150 cents flat. After that, a Kimball console at a church, followed by a newer Story & Clark at another church. Then finished off the day with a newer Wurlitzer grand that was 50 cents flat, had out of phase bass strings, false beats throughout the treble, and terribly tight centers on the damper levers. Glad that one's done!

Kimball Console, Schimmel grand, Essex studio, Stein L, Stein L, and finally a Pearl River grand - the most notable of the lot. This piano lacks action glide studs, so I shimmed the center rail and did a reg two years ago to get aftertouch. The strings snap past the bearings, and inharmonicity is soooo high, I had several choices for bass string location. Octave, naw, lets use a double octave, hmmm, try a fifth, naw, octave and fifth, naw, back to the double octave, check the 10ths, hmmmm, note above is a bit out, retune that, try the seventeenths, hmmm, found another that,s not quite right, back to the double octave, and finally after much messing around, treble chords with a bass root sounded good. Actually, it's not a bad sounding piano, once all the farting around with the tuning is complete.

Yamaha G-3 that I do every 6 mos., basically tune the mid range (wet-weather #) touch-up.
Yamaha RX-3, a year old, very close to pitch. Tuned, teflonned knuckles, pushed down on the balanciers to smear the existing lube onto the spring tips(a new trick I thought might be worth trying--it worked! the ticking is gone...for now, anyway).
An ancient Steinway, serial #33237, not sure of the model. According to the Steinway website, it was made around 1876. 85 notes, joined tail, some good sized soundboard cracks. But the old thing still sounded pretty good, considering. I hope I sing that well when I'm 135 years old!
Tuned and pitch raised a ear-splittingly bright Weber studio, a former rental.
Pitch adjusted and tuned a Kawai K-25 that I've been servicing for 8 years, but only every couple of years.
I picked up my 10 year old lad for my weekend with him, and I tried to explain to him why I don't want the music so loud in the car.