Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Restringing

Hi Parks:

I am sorry for your troubles, so I will give a serious response. As soon as you are able to safely come into your home, you will want to engage the services of a piano technician or preferably a rebuilder to come and appraise the damage to the instrument. That MUST be an on site visual inspection for insurance or legal purposes. The documentation will have to be in writing. You will, of course, have to pay for this service.

If you can tell us the city you are in, perhaps some of the techs might be able to recommend someone near you who can give you an honest and accurate appraisal, or make that offer themselves.

Good luck to you.

I doubt all strings are cut, it is a lot of work, frightening and dangerous for the one who does it.

So they where due for a change so it could be positive for the piano in the end.

It sound as a personal revenge, so it shoul turn good in the end

Je compatis,

You must mean bolt cutters rather than loppers. Loppers for cutting tree limbs would hardly cut one or two piano wires before they would give out.

You could have saved yourself the wisecracks and jabs by explaining the situation in greater detail, but even then, no reputable tech will give a figure for repair unless he can see the piano. There are just too many variables.

Thank you everyone.

No one has addressed the heart of the matter. I know that an on site assessment is neccessary for repair. There is a difference between damage and repair. He didn't damage the pin block, but a string repair is moot without a new pin block. The cost of a bew pin block is much higher. Does that make the new block part of the damage I can sue him for?

Yes, all of the strings. Yes, it was revenge. For what, I have no clue. He is sick, and will probably leave the country.

I don't know the exact tool he used, but he has many from which to choose. Whatever it was left scuff marks on the sound board. Also, as the strings snapped they have scratched the sound board as well.

Michael, I am very sorry for your troubles. This forum is probably not the best place for you to get help, because we cannot see the piano and are not qualified to comment on the legal aspects of your situation (including safety). There may have been other household damage in your absence, so I am assuming that you will have a complex insurance/legal situation. I hope that you can get started straightening things out, perhaps with the help of the police or a domestic violence counselor, and then come back to us for names of reliable technicians in your area. I know that the piano damage is very distressing, but it's only one aspect of what you are having to deal with. Again, I am sorry.

You need to get your situation stabilized before you worry about the piano.

I don't believe you will be able to sue for a new pin block (i.e., you can't sue for an upgrade); the strings can be replaced with the original pinblock and pin that were functioning before hand...even if it wasn't very well-functioning. Damper regulation has most likely been destroyed, so that should be part of the claim. The pinblock is going too far, but you may always give it a try. You are going to need a police report for the insurance claim, no? Did you do that?

If he leaves the country, suing him will not be an option. So, if you really are going to sue him, you must serve him while he is in this country. And, he has to have money to sue for. Does he have any?

in those sort of situation the insurance pay for a percentage of the structural repair and the sum of the real damage to the element broken.
I had the case with a fire, while the piano was neglected they of course do pay a part of the rebuild so the instrument can be back to its precedent condition of playable.

Dents in spruce can be raised with moistening , not sure how much it come to level.

Lordy!

Who needs soap operas when you have PW!!!!

Yes. Scattered among the technicians are an assortment of jesters and drama queens. Ain't it fun?

Try and be kind to others. It may help your day go better, and it won't hurt them.

Greetings,
It takes a good pinblock not to suffer from restringing. If old pins are taken out and oversized ones put in, you will, in many cases, find the block fails after a few more humidity cycles. AT this age, the only thing I would consider would be to replace the sound board, and block. Depending on transportation, that will cost approx. $ 15,000.

The short answer is the strings and block, with attention to the bridges and soundboard damage can cost about $ 10,000 , but you will still have a dead soundboard in the piano and a very old action.

It may be better to sell the carcass, I don't know.

I'm curious. Since the tension was not lowered in the recommended order, is there a chance the plate was cracked?

That is a possibility...

I'm just trying to think how I would crack a plate (i.e., if I want to). Removing the capo tension won't do it normally, but if it were done all at once? Maybe.

Probably, the worst thing to do would be to start at the bass and cut your way up to the top...that might potentially do the most harm. He must have been in one outraged state-of-mind to go through with something like that: it must have made a tremendous racket.

Has anyone tried this on a garbage destined piano before?

The wild thing is that, apparently, he did it at night, while I was asleep. I agree, it must have made an incredible racket. I was so exhausted, I didn't hear a thing!

In fact, the action is relatively new. About 10 or 15 years ago, a pack of teenagers on Halloween night threw eggs through the window, and damages the piano. It was most the finish, of course, but the insurance paid for it, and 'anything else the piano needed.' I'm not entirely sure what they did, but the action seems to have been replaced fully (original keys and keybed;) the pin block was doped; and the sound board is original. It's a 1933 Steinway A.