Pianotech

Interesting situation here..

Subject piano: High quality expensive European piano 

Findings:

As customer's technician I inspected the piano throroughly at first local service appointment (customer gets grumpy if tuning interval is longer than 6 weeks).  Piano doesn't sound bad and has an apparent high build quality although I didn't think it sounded all that great for the price. I checked bearing using a Lowell bearing gage and found negative bearing of 2-10 units in the top two sections and little  bearing in the tenor. To verify the situation I removed 2 bridge pins and confirmed that the string was flying visibly above the bridge with no contact and the ability to slide material under the string on the bridge with no friction or drag whatsoever. 

I then contacted the dealer who arranged for factory technician to visit. Said factory technician used factory setup jigs and referred to notes taken during manufacture and pronounced the piano to be "normal" with no deviation from factory setup. The dealer than contacted me saying that the matter was considered closed. 

Personally, as a rebuilder with soundboard replacement experience plus having visited several piano factories, I don't believe that a piano that is substantially higher priced than a S&S B should have negative bearing at any point regardless of design or assembly philosophy. (Maybe minimal or zero in the low tenor or bass--maybe. But certainly not in the top two treble sections.) The dealer is well meaning but has no direct understanding of the topic--having never repaired a piano, replaced a soundboard or carved a bridge, so he has to accept authority and the authority he accepts is the expensive factory technicians over someone who could be perceived as a backwoods tuner. He sent a technician to the factory but that technician while competent for general service has no background in major rebuilding or other factory visits so is pretty much in awe of this particular manufacturer and dubious that they could do anything wrong. 

So, I'd be glad for any feedback on this topic. 

Interesting situation here..

Subject piano: High quality expensive European piano 

Findings:

As customer's technician I inspected the piano throroughly at first local service appointment (customer gets grumpy if tuning interval is longer than 6 weeks).  Piano doesn't sound bad and has an apparent high build quality although I didn't think it sounded all that great for the price. I checked bearing using a Lowell bearing gage and found negative bearing of 2-10 units in the top two sections and little  bearing in the tenor. To verify the situation I removed 2 bridge pins and confirmed that the string was flying visibly above the bridge with no contact and the ability to slide material under the string on the bridge with no friction or drag whatsoever. 

I then contacted the dealer who arranged for factory technician to visit. Said factory technician used factory setup jigs and referred to notes taken during manufacture and pronounced the piano to be "normal" with no deviation from factory setup. The dealer than contacted me saying that the matter was considered closed. 

Personally, as a rebuilder with soundboard replacement experience plus having visited several piano factories, I don't believe that a piano that is substantially higher priced than a S&S B should have negative bearing at any point regardless of design or assembly philosophy. (Maybe minimal or zero in the low tenor or bass--maybe. But certainly not in the top two treble sections.) The dealer is well meaning but has no direct understanding of the topic--having never repaired a piano, replaced a soundboard or carved a bridge, so he has to accept authority and the authority he accepts is the expensive factory technicians over someone who could be perceived as a backwoods tuner. He sent a technician to the factory but that technician while competent for general service has no background in major rebuilding or other factory visits so is pretty much in awe of this particular manufacturer and dubious that they could do anything wrong. 

So, I'd be glad for any feedback on this topic.