Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum So, what did you do today?

I just saw what must be the first Christmas tree of the season in a client's home. All decked out, lights a-flashing. And we are still a few weeks away from Hallowe'en!

But then again, the cold wind is whipping the first snow around as I finish up my annual piano servicing tour of Arctic Canada and head home to the warmer Pacific shores. Man, I sure wish we had those magnificent Northern Lights at night though!

Had a strange dayyesterday. Looking for a lost pin on a pedal rod in the bottom of a console in the morning. With my little mirror, I spot it laying in the gap behind the plate. Magnetic pickup tool is too large to fit so I try fishing it out with a thin pair of tweezers that are just not quite long enough to reach it. The tweezers slip out of my fingers and end up on top of the pin. Go out to my car and get some Juicy Fruit gum from the glove compartment. Make a little bend on a piece of piano wire and stick the gum to it.... works at getting both out of that tight space. Make note...carry gum with me on all future jobs.

I promised a new client I would drop in on them after my afternoon job since they were nearby. The lady called me the night before and said her grandaughters piano had continuous sustain on all the notes and was unplayable because of it. Well I show up and behold, its a small Yamaha digital piano. Since I was there already, I poked around on it, unplugged it, replugged it, jiggled the mechanism and connectors on the sustai pedal. Must have been a bad connection or something since I got it to work. Make note for myself....if I even have the slightest doubt that a prospective client knows absolutely nothing about pianos...politely ask if the "piano" needs to be plugged into the wall to make a sound. I get one of these calls about once a year and don't usually ask new clients if its really an accoustic piano...I feel like I'm insulting the intelligence of 99% of the people out there who know the difference.

There was something in the Digital forum about holding the damper pedal as you turn the instrument on, so that the electronics can decide the proper way for it to work. It is something you can put in your bag of tricks if you get a call like that again.

Recapping a bass bridge today....

Ha Ha, I had one of those today - second one this year. It turned out to be a Yamaha digital grand in a restaurant store room, and there was grease all over cabinet, even under the lid. Someone had removed all the cabinet parts to expose the action. The action worked fine, but it was lacking the power cord, so I passed the job to the Yammie tech with detailed instructions on what "cleaning" would entail.

Asking a client about a power cord won't work, due to the Dampp Chaser power cords and player systems. Ask if the piano has a power switch. If the piano works without turning a switch on, I'm interested.

Calls to "tune" a digital piano are going to be on increase as more are sold, and more break. Personally, I charge the min service call charge when that occurs.

Spraying a piano cabinet the same colour as the ocean in the Bahamas...aqua blue...

I'll be able to confirm that color on a future trip there. Can't wait! We are heading into our summer here, and the temp is finally dropping into the 80's. One of the neighbors keeps finding baby rattle snakes - one in the garage, another in the yard. Given the birth rate, 7 or 8 babies are still crawling around the neighborhood. Hopefully, the black racer snakes will eat them. Stepping carefully here.

Just finishing up the final top coats Bob….I will take a couple of shots and post them here later…..

Quitting early today; gotta get down to the dome for the big game tonight! First place is up for grabs in the west division of the CFL.

In Chicago today for my 4th treatment of Prolotherapy by Dr. Hauser. www.caringmedical.com in case anyone is interested. I get my treatment tomorrow afternoon afterwhich, I am staying the night and then heading back home and then, Wednesday morning, we are heading up to Boyne city to stay for 2 nights because we have to go to a funeral for my wife's aunt. Yuck. Not looking forward that one!!! We were both very close to her. Consequently, I had to cancel my tunings for the rest of the week. My biggest problem, is trying to find time to put them in somewhere else because I'm booked solid! Good and bad thing when things like this take place....

I spent a few hours doing some repairs on this lady's piano:

www.lisafirestone.com

and earlier in the week, I worked on this gentleman's piano:

http://www.tzimonbarto.com/

Last year, after hearing their 10 year old play, I told the client to sell the Kranich and Bach ASAP and get the child prodigy a better piano. They listened! I arrived today, expecting the Kranich, and found a Yammi G-1 in it's place. Their son, now 11 is winning competitions against kids 14 years old. Being part of his success makes my day.

Cleaned a Yam G5 full of drywall dust, then tuned. Had to put all the balance rail punchings under the felt punchings... who does that?

Repaired two broke keys on a Wurlitzer consolette.

Repaired a music desk.

Replaced a set of hammer flange cords.

Full day.

Gave the old upright that I restrung last month its one-month tuning. It really had not dropped that much.

cleaned a very dirty C3, polished the case and plate, cleaned soundboard, rebushed the mortises, sanded and polished the ivorites, mounted new shanks and heads (3 days)
WIll change the 2 treble sections plain wire, also..plus tunings, 2 other days...

all that on site in a sunny place nice people (musicians ;)) and childs, and excellent food ...

Seen something new today. One of the worst consoles I ever tuned. All the pins were barely tight enough to hold, rusted strings, over a dozen of them false beating, buzzes in the tenor from loose ribs, 2 broken hammers, broken pedal rod, mangled dampers all out of sync with each other. The unique thing was that a large springy type door stop was screwed into the corner of it to prevent the rooms door from hitting it (not that it would matter if it did). It was hard for me to resist the temptation of asking if the door stop was attached as an accompanying instrument. If any of you can remember back to your early childhood, the springy doorstop was the universal instrument of choice for most of us when nothing else was around.

Those springy door stops are fun for other species as well!

Never happened to me before, but it was bound to sooner or later.

Went to the wrong house and tuned the wrong piano. The person I tuned for had the same first name, a piano I tuned before, but instead I should have gone to the top of the NEXT hill. Third parties were involved with scheduling and directions. And after I called and blurted out an apology, found out I called a brother's house! That family answers their phone by saying their last name...

I've never tuned a piano at the wrong house, but I've gotten addresses wrong and knocked on the wrong door that way.

I have tuned the wrong piano at a retirement village, but the receptionist pointed me to it........ her bad, not mine!

One of my customers today had retrieved her 1914 Dometsch clavichord, which I had a chance to play today.

It wasn't today, but last week I spent one very long day tuning and repairing in The Church of the Holy False Beat.