I fired my first client yesterday.
Well, not actually, but I basically told him I preferred not to work on his piano.
Here's the story: I was called to look at a spinet that the client got for free; supposedly this was a Hardman Peck but I saw no designation anywhere. Many hammers weren't returning properly, and the piano was out-of-tune.
When I got there, I found that the mechanism was quite a bit different from other spinets I'd worked on, and my first impression was: this is bizarre. Not only are the wire lifters hooked to wooden levers linked to the keys at the top-- that have to be removed to remove the action-- but also there are nuts on the bottom of the lifters that have to be unscrewed. It made no sense. Does the action all lift out with the lifters in one piece, as some spinet actions do? Apparently not. Would the whole assembly have to come out, keys and all? That made no sense, either. OK, so I decided to work on just one problem key, take a hammer out, test it, and see if it needs to be re-pinned. But, I can't get the hammer out: getting the flange screw out (and back in) was hard enough. I suppose I could've take several hammers out and gotten enough room but fighting the screws with such tight space didn't seem worth it.
I fixed some of the hammers by cheating: I bent the bridle wires back far enough so that the weight of the whippens would pull the hammers back. But, that didn't work on all the hammers (one can only pull the wires back so far.) The springs were all in place, etc. My guess was that re-pinning was the solution.
I did a quick tune and then told the client that I didn't think he should invest any more in the piano. My opinion is that this particularly spinet mechanism is a nightmare. I charged less than a tuning cost for three hours of work; I felt badly taking anything. I didn't even charge for travel although this was an hour away.
This piano made no sense and was a poor investment, even for free. I don't think the client liked my opinion but I felt I'd be misleading him by telling him that with a few hundred dollars worth of work, it'd be good for some time. The truth is that this isn't a piano that can go the distance, and I want him and his young family to have something that's worth it. There are plenty of decent pianos out there for free, or low-cost; no need to settle for a lemon.
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Don Dalton
Chester VT
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