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Dealer prep work

  • 1.  Dealer prep work

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-14-2019 18:15

    The local Yamaha dealer hired a piano technician to perform dealer preparation on the new Yamaha grands. I have observed the technician performing routine prep work to include reaming the key balance hole with a chucking reamer – without evidence of sticking keys and tapping the strings down in the bridge – without evidence of false beats. I attended Yamaha's Little Red School House in the mid 70's where no such prep work was ever recommended.  Am I missing something?   



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    Roger Gable
    Gable Piano
    Everett WA
    425-252-5000
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  • 2.  RE: Dealer prep work

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-14-2019 19:09
    Roger

    i do prep work for the big Yamaha dealer on the West coast who does Costco sales here in Hawaii.  I was told by their head tech guy to tap the strings and ease all the keys, so that they can be lifted up from the balance rail and drop back down, as per our tech exam requirements. Most of the time this will require easing the balance rail hole in addition to, or instead of, easing the balance and/or front rail bushings.

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    Willem "Wim" Blees, RPT
    Mililani, HI 96789
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  • 3.  RE: Dealer prep work

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-14-2019 20:20
    I'm probably going to open a can o' worms here (unrelated to the Roger's question, apologies), but what would you consider to be "standard" dealer prep work, and what would you consider should be done either before the piano leaves the factory or after it arrives at its new home?

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    Benjamin Sanchez
    Professional Piano Services
    (805)315-8050
    www.professional-piano-services.com
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  • 4.  RE: Dealer prep work

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-14-2019 22:10
    I don't do much prep work anymore, but when I had my store, I would make sure all the components worked properly, including the trap system and the action. Obviously tuning and voicing, as needed. My office assistant would inspect the case and make sure it was perfect. I also offered tuning after delivery.

    The maker of the pianos I sold didn't offer any reimbursement or paid for tuning, like Yamaha does, so all of that came out of my pocket. But then I was the piano tuner for the store. That is why many stores don't do much prep on their pianos, because it costs to much.


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    Willem "Wim" Blees, RPT
    Mililani, HI 96789
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  • 5.  RE: Dealer prep work

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-14-2019 23:48
    Dealer prep is usually approached as a prophylactic measure to prevent costly warranty service requests in the field for things like sticky keys or tuning instability. Delivering value to the dealer by preventing these issues are reasons a tech might use a chucking reamer or tap on the bridge as a matter of course.  However, we are capable of causing some pretty irreversible iatrogenic damage with the best of intentions.  

    I expect this next part to be a point of debate, but from the oversimplified version of what I understand about wood: a high moisture content from a humid climate causes the hole drilled in the wood to act like the wood that was removed.  I.E. the wooden key swells and so does the removed wood (the balance hole) which means the balance hole would tend to get loose all on its own in a place like Washington state which I assume to be very humid. Any additional easing of the keys (especially with a tool that removes material) could potentially cause problems for a piano that spends its life in that environment, whereas hitting the balance holes with a chucking reamer might be an excellent choice on a piano that was built in Japan but acclimated to the climate in Arizona. The reality is more complicated, but basically wood that is in the process of acclimating to a new moisture content can behave the opposite of how I just described, that is until the entire piece catches up. The hole has an edge that is exposed to the air which causes it to take on moisture quicker than the wood at the core of the key so easing balance holes might seem like the necessary choice for a piano that just arrived in Seattle vacuum sealed from Phoenix, but given time to acclimate would seem to get loose all on its own.

    The advantage to using a chucking reamer is that they are precisely machined to the half-thousandth of an inch and can be chosen to match the balance pins. If chosen correctly, they can't get you into too much trouble when they're used unnecessarily, whereas the tapered burnisher is less precise and easier to overdo. The advantage to the tapered balance hole burnisher is the reversibility because material is displaced instead of removed. I would assume the tech is making judgement calls based on their observations and experiences, and making smart choices within the given context.

    As for the tapping of the strings on the bridge, I would guess it is an attempt to achieve tuning stability.  I can think of some better ways to achieve this, but I'm also making an assumption about the reason they're choosing to do it in the first place.

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    Daniel DeBiasio
    Brooklyn, NY
    646.801.8863
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  • 6.  RE: Dealer prep work

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-15-2019 01:39
    Hi Dan:
    Well, my experience is just opposite regarding holes and moisture. Balance rail holes get smaller with moisture increases, so get more sluggish on the pins. No need of reamers, the easing tool works just fine. My first job in the piano industry was easing keys on new Korean pianos, using said tool and key easing pliers. The wood had been dried too much during manufacture, and so the atmosphere would swell up the keys and bushings in all of the pianos. Thank God for that, I wouldn't be here today writing about it, having spent 30 years in the piano business. Behavior of wood is indeed surprising in how it behaves, ie., holes get smaller when you think they should be getting bigger when moisture enters it.
    Dealer prep, what little I used to do on new pianos we sold was just a good tuning prior to delivery, checking the pedal functions, polishing out packing marks, some voicing if time allowed, lost motion, etc. Then a free in-home tuning after a few weeks or so. Too bad I didn't have Gazelle back then, or I'd have a customer base of several thousand by now. I never chased anybody, mostly since I didn't have time except in the evenings and weekends to do outside tunings.
    Mostly dealer prep is to keep the new piano owner happy so you don't have to get warrantee repair requests after the sale and delivery. Word of mouth travels fast, and you don't want unhappy customers spreading rumors of their bad experiences. You just don't want to do too much, or the dealer's profit erodes. Cheap pianos often need a lot of help, so they actually aren't so cheap after all. (Especially when every key in every piano needs easing).
    $.02.
    Paul McCloud
    San Diego




  • 7.  RE: Dealer prep work

    Posted 06-15-2019 08:45
    I made a Balance Hole Reamer Guided that controls the depth of the tapered reamed for exact duplication on each key. It's somewhere in the archives.

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    Regards,

    Jon Page
    mailto:jonpage@pianocapecod.com
    http://www.pianocapecod.com
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  • 8.  RE: Dealer prep work

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-15-2019 13:38
    Daniel,
    A couple of corrections:  As Paul said, the physics of wood is such that a hole will get tighter as the humidity increases. Second, there is a misconception about the affect of the humid Seattle climate on pianos. During the rainy season (usually 9 months) the outside temperature is low enough that homes are heated to insulate the damp outside climate from the warmer and dryer climate within a building. Certainly, if we kept our pianos on the front porch, Seattle would be one of the worse places in the world to own a piano. Because the opposite is the case, Seattle is one of the best places in the world to own a piano.
    Roger





  • 9.  RE: Dealer prep work

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-15-2019 15:27
    I agree with Daniel. At least until someone does a valid scientific test. When I was in Arizona tight balance rail and even flanges was caused by the extreme dryness. My thought experiment is to put a dry 1' square board with a 1" hole in the center in a bucket of water. Initially the hole gets smaller because of its surface coated with water. As the whole board expands it pulls the hole larger.

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    Larry Messerly, RPT
    Bringing Harmony to Homes
    www.lacrossepianotuning.com
    ljmesserly@gmail.com
    928-899-7292
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  • 10.  RE: Dealer prep work

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-15-2019 17:03
    I tend to assume that the key must have functioned properly at some point in time, thus I don't favor using any cutting tool on balance hole. Just to add a note on the proper use of the burnisher.  Most balance rail holes do not need to be eased in the front-back direction.  Not only does use tend to keep them freer in this direction, but the very act of removing the key will tend to ease it in this direction unless it is picked up at the front and back and lifted directly up off the key pin.  This might come naturally in grands, where you're going to have to take the stack off anyway, but is often skipped in verticals, where you can remove the keys without pulling the action. Burnishers, both  the Yamaha CF tool and the ones made to fit the universal handle, are flattened on the sides to allow insertion past the bushing cloth.  Thus you can insert the tool and turn it ninety degrees to ease only the sides of the hole.  You will often find this sufficient to allow the key to fall back freely.  Also the use of a mold release or spray teflon on key pins before easing the keys will, if they're not too bad, save you enough time to make it worth your while.

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    Cecil Snyder
    Torrance CA
    310-542-7108
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  • 11.  RE: Dealer prep work

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-15-2019 18:39
    Roger,

    You and Paul are not entirely wrong. The hole will temporarily get tighter as humidity increases and the wood is in the process of acclimating to the new environment. During this interim phase before the wood has reached its new equilibrium moisture content, the moisture content of the wood is slowly and unevenly increasing. The cells of the wood take on moisture from its surfaces first which are in direct contact with the humid air. 

    The hole is a surface which will take on moisture before the wood at the core does as we approach a new equilibrium moisture content. Since the surface area of the hole is locked inside wood that hasn't expanded yet, it has nowhere to go but in, causing the hole to get tighter. This is only temporary, but this is what we experience when balance holes get tight as humidity spikes.

    Once the wood finally reaches equilibrium moisture content, the entire piece will have expanded and the hole with it just as it would if there was no hole.

    It is for this reason I caution against using a chucking reamer during an interim phase when the wood hasn’t yet reached equilibrium moisture content. 





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    Daniel DeBiasio
    Brooklyn, NY
    646.801.8863
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  • 12.  RE: Dealer prep work

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-15-2019 18:45
    Daniel,
    Yes, you are correct.
    Roger





  • 13.  RE: Dealer prep work

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-17-2019 08:35
    Take a look at Susan Graham's Technical Forum article in the October 1988 Journal, entitled There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Key.  It says much the same as Daniel.

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    Zeno Wood
    Brooklyn, NY
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  • 14.  RE: Dealer prep work

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-18-2019 10:22
    Every new piano I have purchased for UNM in Albuquerque, NM has had overly tight balance holes within three months of delivery. I ream with parallel reamers .001" larger than the pin, then follow with the tapered reamer with just a little pressure (to taper the profile of the hole). This has worked very well over the years.

    If the holes are just crushed with the tapered reamer, they will become tight again with high humidity, as that crushed wood reconstitutes. Same thing with pin blocks: pins do become looser in dry season, then tighter in wet. There are two factors involved, one being the actual structure of the wood, the other being the behavior of crushed wood (or, BTW, of felt held within a wood circle).

    Steinway teflon bushings are another case in point. The original ones were smooth sided. They clicked in moister humidity, became tight in dry for the most part, as the wood hole alternately opened up and closed around them (an added detail being the difference between up/down and fore/aft, as the grain behaves differently - in fact, the hole became oval, at least theoretically). Adding ribs to the bushings and making them thicker avoided this problem, but I had ten Bs with the original bushings to contend with for 15 years or se before I replaced the parts, so I experienced the problem first hand.

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    Fred Sturm
    University of New Mexico
    fssturm@unm.edu
    http://fredsturm.net
    http://www.artoftuning.com
    "We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same." - Carlos Casteneda
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  • 15.  RE: Dealer prep work

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-16-2019 01:39
    Roger Jolly once suggested putting a balance rail pin into a drill and running that through every balance rail hole.  You could even run the balance rail pin across a diamond stone or a pair of files, but don't get too aggressive!

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    Blaine Hebert
    Duarte CA
    626-795-5170
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  • 16.  RE: Dealer prep work

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-16-2019 11:32
    Blaine and all,
    I want to emphasize that my concern about my dealer prep observations were "in light of no sticky keys and no evidence of false beats". Do technicians perform these tasks when no problem exist? Don't we let sleeping dogs lie?
    Roger





  • 17.  RE: Dealer prep work

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-16-2019 14:53
    Roger

    On new Yamaha's I left every key of both grand and upright, as a matter of checking them. It's easier and less time consuming to do that, than to do it while tuning.  It's also much faster to lightly tap all the strings, instead of waiting for a false beat, especially on an upright.

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    Willem "Wim" Blees, RPT
    Mililani, HI 96789
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  • 18.  RE: Dealer prep work

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 06-16-2019 23:18
    Roger,
    The purpose of a store technician is to make the pianos sell-able and trouble free, at least to get it past the warranty, and to cost the dealer as little as possible.

    Easing keys just to the point of dropping - but no further (no back to front play) and tuning the piano to pitch (I prefer 442 on new pianos) is almost all that should be needed.

    IMHO the only reason to tap strings at the bridge is to prevent false beats and the tap should be VERY light. A gentle tap with a wood dowel or screwdriver is all that is necessary and if your hand hurts after doing three pianos you are tapping too hard.  I recently tried making a string hook with a piece of #15 piano wire and using that to seat the strings into the bridge or at the capo bar and it was perfectly adequate.  I have seen many pianos, often otherwise nice instruments, with strings that were visibly bent at the bridge and capo bar and lots of badly beating​ strings.  I have also seen many "cheap" instruments that received minimal "prep" that had quite clean strings.

    I suspect that Yamaha's recommendation for only freeing up tight keys and no seating is because much of the "dealer prep" that takes place makes things worse than doing only a tuning.

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    Blaine Hebert
    Duarte CA
    626-795-5170
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