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Oh no – How do I tell this customer about this . . . ?

This customer had no idea about this pretty big crack in their plate. It is a Steinway grand piano. Sometimes my job is easy and sometimes it is hard. She wasn’t very happy.

This piano has Gold strings!

Tuned this 1920’s Schumann grand piano. It has original gold strings. Ive never seen this before. I guess thats is what they thought separated them from other pianos. Not a bad sounding old piano.

Yes another boast as to why this piano is good . . .

“Boy this Everett upright sure does have that tone beauty like a grand piano”. I had to look and sure enough it does have iron beams instead of wooden ones. I am afraid however I can’t say it compares to a grand. Oh well, I guess you have to try something to separate yourself from …

A couple of tunings at the Armory in Somerville

I always like tuning this Kawai grand piano at the Armory in Somerville. Easy to tune and sounds great.

Piano tuning at Music and Arts in Peabody

It is a bit of a gamble when a music store calls you for a tuning. Sometimes the pianos are good, sometimes not. I was pleasantly surprised when I tuned these two Ritmuller upright pianos at the Music and Arts store in Peabody Ma.

Another marketing idea that didn’t help this low end piano . . .

Oh the art of marketing. This vintage of Aeolian (1970’s) has to be the lowest quality pianos ever made. To compensate for that they come up with some pretty funny ways of making them seem a lot better quality then they are. “especially engineered strip of sound carrying Maple”? Good stuff.

Installing a brand new amp in a Wurlitzer 200 electric piano

The wurli now has a very nice hot output with a very low noise floor. Great amps.

Hours and hours working on this Hohner Clavinet

This is the underside of a clavinet. Over time the little orange tips (which sort of fret the strings) turn into a gooey, gum like texture. A pain to scoop out and put new ones in. You need patience and some inventive ways of digging out these little buggers!

Every now and again I stand back and look at the amount of work I have ahead of me. Today I did just that. Looks like Ill be here a while. May need a bigger shop.

Thats one rusty piano!

Rust rust and more rust! Please be careful when choosing a “free craigslist piano”. You get what you pay for folks. Hard to tell customers bad news and this piano was in horrible shape.