WTF-Beta

@ShiroKuro said in A piano question re: repinning cost:

@Lisa said in A piano question re: repinning cost:

Plus the piano overall still sounds jawdroppingly amazing - it just tends to not quite hold the exact tuning for long (and some notes are definitely worse than others in that regard).

ah, ok, so this is interesting... in other words, it sounds great but doesn't hold the tuning as long as it should, or as long as it used to, correct?

In that case, I might advocate for putting off the repairs for maybe a year or two, understanding it will need slightly more frequent tunings during that time.

That's kind of what we've been doing. But it has gotten to the point where one or two notes will be out of tune pretty much within a day of tuning it -- even with staying covered and with the damp chaser -- I think the pins are just slipping. It is unfortunately at the point where something needs to be done.

The "cheap" guy is supposed to be coming March 31 to look at the piano and give a firm quote, but we are going to need to reschedule that because we have another offsite thing that day that we can't move. I have said that I would like to be there when the piano tech comes, so I will keep you posted as to what he says. We definitely don't have $40-60K for the full rebuild nor could we afford to have no piano for as long as a full rebuild would take.

Our current tech has looked over the soundboard and says it's fine. He also says the strings are fine - no rust, etc. (It's possible they aren't the original strings - I wouldn't be suprised if they were replaced somewhere along the line). The piano has a dampp-chaser system and an undercover, and it's kept under a custom fitted thick quilted cover all the time unless it's being played, so there should be pretty good humidity control. We try to keep the humidity controlled in the room its in but that has been harder - I know it does fluctuate a bit in the room.

I know that my own personal piano, a 1920s Chickering grand which I purchased semi-rebuilt in 2004, had the larger tuning pins installed as part of the work that was done to it before I got it (it had the larger tuning pins, some action work including new hammers (although not a full replacement because the whippens are apparently a Chickering-one-off special and no modern parts will fit) and a refinish. It sill has the original soundboard which still sounds great although it has lost some crown over the years. The piano has been rock solid for the last 20 years so I do have faith that the larger tuning pins in the existing block can work. Whether it's the best approach -- I dunno. I do believe there is a lot to be said for the quality of wood that was available in the past (even 50 years ago) vs. what's available now, although I'd imagine they try to source new pinblocks from old-growth wood. Still, I know our guiding philosophy with all of our restorations (we do a lot of electronic instruments as well) has been to try to keep things original as much as possible unless original is just plain non-functional.

Part of the issue is that we are a non profit (so kinda broke, although our founder is pretty wealthy and would probably float it if we can convince him its necessary). And also, the piano belonged to, appeared on album covers, and was toured with by Keith Emerson of ELP. So we're walking the fine line between keeping things as original as possible so it remains like it was when Keith played it and doing the necesary maintenance to make it usable for our performances now. The hammers and shanks were already done - that was way before my time but they apparently had to be done, no way around it - and the action was tweaked to be as light as our tech could get it (which IMO is still pretty heavy, but according to my coworkers, it's MUCH better than it used to be.) The fact that the piano has rock-star provenance means we are committed to keeping it -- there's no option to replace the piano which I saw some folks on SK's FB page were cavalierly recommending LOL.

The piano tech said he has tried the CA treatment on a few pins but says it's "ok for some pin locks, not so much on hex - a grip pinblocks that Steinway uses" and that it's really meant for one or 2 pins, not the whole area.

I also figured out that both of those prices include reusing the current strings, which our tech recommended doing. (Again, though, he's not an expert) I also don't think there's anything wrong with the soundboard or he would have said something. Plus the piano overall still sounds jawdroppingly amazing - it just tends to not quite hold the exact tuning for long (and some notes are definitely worse than others in that regard).

@ShiroKuro Great idea! yes if you wouldn't mind posting and getting some price ranges without any details (in case any of the techs in question are lurking about there!) I would really appreciate it!

Thanks Ron - I'm pretty sure (though not positive, as I'm not always there when the piano is worked on) that our current tech has tried the glue treatment for a few of the problematic pins -- I know he has tried banging them down harder and a few other temporary fixes (which I think include the glue injection but might not) but nothing has worked long-term. There was some discussion of perhaps reusing the strings and maybe that's where the 1800 figure came from. I don't know what it means when you say the cast iron capo section should be reshaped before stringing - can you explain in less techy terms LOL! It had a full action overhaul with all new hammers a few years ago by our current tech (he's an action guy) so at least that's in good shape (though the action is very heavy....not sure there's anything that can be done about that -- I was under the impression that that's kind of innate to 9 ft Steinways from that era but maybe that's another thing I just made up in my head.)

Without going into the whole backstory, the piano (a 1970s vintage 9ft Steinway) at my place of employment needs some work. Namely the tuning pins are loose and the piano tech (who happens to also be my personal piano tech) has suggested we replace them with larger pins and have the piano restrung. He does not do this kind of work but has suggested someone reputable that we should call. He also tossed out a dollar figure that I thought was shockingly low (~$1800) as what he estimated this work would cost. He did say he wasn't really sure though, since again, he doesn't do that work.

Fast forward a bit and we have contacted the guy he recommended and the actual quote is closer to $5K. Since the budget was already designed around this $1800 figure and that is the number that everyone got into their heads, my bosses are kind of choking a bit about the cost. They got another recommendation from one of their long time personal tuners and that guy (without seeing the piano) tossed out a quote of $2200-$2400. Of course my bosses want to go with the cheaper guy, but my piano tech (who was out today tuning my piano) is warning me of all the things that can go wrong when you go with the lowest price. And of course, no one here knows either of the guys who would be doing the actual work -- both guys are referrals from our personal piano tuners.

So my question is how much is a realistic price for replacing the tuning pins with larger ones and restringing in a 9 ft concert grand? Is $2200 suspiciously cheap? Or is $5K an overpriced "I don't really want to do this job so I'll quote high" rate? I know that when I heard the initial ballpark of $1800 I thought it seemed really low, but since i have no idea what this sort of work actually costs, I had no actual reason to think that - just a gut feeling. So I'm trying to figure out what the typical cost for this project is so that we can decide if we want to go with expensive guy, cheap guy, or keep shopping around.

Thanks for any info you can provide!

me too, please!

Also, though, just because Microsoft won't support Windows 10 anymore doesn't mean you have to get rid of the laptop. It will probably work for many more years. I'm running windows 10 now on my Lenovo and have no plans to upgrade unless I absolutely have to - everyone I know who is using Windows 11 low key hates it, so I'm keeping Windows 10 as long as I can.

My current laptop is a Lenovo Yoga 9i. My last one was a Lenovo Yoga 7i -- it lasted 4+ years and was still going strong - I only replaced it because I wore actual holes through the spacebar and the S key from so much typing.....that should tell you how much of a workhorse it was. My current one is going on maybe 3 years of trouble free use and so far the keys are all intact LOL. We've also bought the Lenovo Yoga line for my husband and my son who uses his at college. He actually has two because he broke one by dropping it (and the actual computer parts were fine - the power button was crushed so it wouldn't turn on/off but once we fixed the button, the rest of it worked fine). And we just bought my daughter a Lenovo Legion gaming laptop for christmas - that one came from Costco.

Before my Lenovos, I had both HP and Dell and they were mostly fine (though each had their quirks -- the HP, especially, ran super hot all the time), but the Lenovos run circles around them. Unless something radically changes and I end up with a lemon at some point, all my computer purchases going forward will be Lenovo.

I believe there's a Lenovo Ideapad for $650 in the latest Costco flyer that looks pretty similar to my Yogas....that setup is nice because the screen is touchscreen and can bend all the way around so the computer sits flat like a tablet. It even comes with a little pen you can slide out of the laptop and use to write on the screen. https://www.costco.com/lenovo-ideapad-5i-16-touchscreen-2-in-1-laptop---intel-core-7-150u---1920-x-1200---windows-11-home---16gb-ram---1tb-ssd---cosmic-blue.product.4000262909.html

ETA - looking at that, I don't think the pen slides into the laptop itself. The one that came with my yoga 9i does which is nice because I always have it. Either way, it's pretty convenient to have the laptop that can flip to "tented" like in the photo, so you can prop it on a table to watch videos or all the way flat like a tablet (which I do when I put it on my music stand to do video music lessons.)

I can't shake the feeling that we are headed for a bird flu pandemic and would like to stock up on KN95/N95 masks now. I made it through covid only wearing surgical masks - I never found a KN95 I liked and since we hardly ever left the house I didn't feel the KN95 was necessary. Bird flu is a whole different story and I'd like the best mask possible. When I look on Amazon, I see a number of generic knockoff brands that all have maybe 90% good reviews and 10% of "this is the worst piece of crap i ever tried".

Anyone have a brand they recommend? Bonus if they are individually wrapped. Extra bonus if they are reasonably priced (e.g. not 3M!), as I'd like to buy a stash for several family members as well.

@wtg Amazon. And it was less than $150 too, which is amazing.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DMSSJ93Q/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_3?smid=A3LRDQCJ73A2H4&th=1

(The first review is mine, LOL! When I bought it there were only like 6 reviews and only 1 or 2 had (very blurry far away) photos. I wanted to fix that for future buyers LOL!)

Our first ever fake tree is up and decorated, and i have to say I'm pretty impressed. It is truly the most lifelike fake tree I have ever seen! Even better -- it was less than $150 for a 9 foot tree!

I've always had Samsung Galaxy S series phones, but I recently saw my coworker's new Samsung Galaxy A25. It's got 90% of what the S series phones have and it's like 1/3 the price. He paid $250 for his at Best Buy, unlocked so it can be used with any carrier. And it still has a headphone jack, which the S series no longer has and which I would sorely miss, which is why I haven't upgraded my phone in 5 years (still on the S10, which was the last one with the headphone jack.) Maybe $250 in spare change is a little easier to find in your sofa cushions than $399? If you haven't already looked into the A25, I'd check it out! Anyhow, good luck with your phone fixing and shopping!

Covfefe. Although I'm guessing that'll be making a comeback in about 6 weeks.

For some reason, she popped into my head this morning. I don't think she's made her way over here, but it seems like it's been a long time since she posted anything at the OG WTF as well. I know she had some heatlh issues and I hope she's ok.

Steve, I'm so sorry to hear you are going through this - that sucks. In Sharon's honor, I made sure to zip my purse shut at all the stores I went to yesterday - it's a crossbody and usually in front of me, but just in case.....

And pique, until a few weeks ago I would have said that I lived in an area like that - we have accidentally left our front door unlocked for weeks on more than one occasion and we have never ever locked our cars (parked outside in our driveway). But about a month ago, I realized that all 3 of our cars had been rifled through overnight - they took the cash we had stashed in the car for drive-thru runs but nothing else (thankfully our wallets weren't in the cars) so they probably made off with $35 total. To get to our cars, they would have had to walk up our VERY LONG driveway (500+ ft) and stand next to our side porch opening and closing car doors. I had heard that others in town had gotten stuff swiped from their cars a few weeks earlier but never imagined someone would have the stones to come all the way up our driveway - you can't even see our house from the road so it would be hard to even know we had cars there. Plus we live in an area where most homeowners are armed and just dying for a reason to test out the stand your ground law so I dunno - I figure the person had to be either very dumb or very desperate.

Anyway, we lock our cars now and double check the house doors every night. The world, it's a changin'.

Good luck Steve getting it all straightened out.

I assume the wifi is your home wifi? Have you tried it on other networks (like gone to a coffee shop and tried their wifi? Have you rebooted both the tablet and the phone?

We bought LL#1 a Shark Rocket Pet stick vac a few years ago. Paid around $120 for it - a similar one seems to be on sale at Macy's right now for $100. She has cats, and it has been a lifesaver vs using the hand-me-down-from-a-roommates-parents vacuum they were using. It's lightweight but does a great job. The cup fills up pretty fast and the filters do need to be cleaned regularly, but that's easy to do (and you know when it needs to be done because the vacuum pretty much stops sucking up the dirt!). The one annoying thing I've noticed when using it is that it doesn't stand up by itself - you have to prop it against the wall or lay it on the floor. Other than that, it's been awesome. If you want something small, maneuverable, and easy to store that still does a great job, I'd recommend it. Not sure if it's heavy-duty enough to be your main/only vac in a large carpeted house, but for a small aparment, single floor, or just quick cleanups, it's awesome.

Every year we have schlepped out to the local tree farm with the kids and made a big production out of picking the perfect tree. But this year, neither kid will be home until a couple days before Christmas, so it would just be Mr. Lisa and I doing the tree farm thing. That plus the fact that until a few days ago, our area was in a serious drought - like not a drop of rain between about the end of September and now - which puts the trees under serious stress and makes them more likely to die faster when you bring them in the house - has made me break down and order my first ever artificial tree. It's kind of depressing actually. I always said that if I was going to go with a fake tree, I wanted something that was stupidly obviously fake (like the silver foil trees of the 60s) but I couldn't find one of the size I needed, so I went with a hopefully-realistic-looking one from amazon that was on a good sale. A lot of the artificial trees now have like plastic branch tips with realistic plastic needles and then the regular more paper-y textured needles to fill in the middle and I wasn't a fan of the 2 different types of needles. The one we ordered supposedly has only the plastic realistic needles, so we'll see. It's a bit sparse, but I have a LOT of ornaments, so here's hoping I can fill it in. We ended up getting it for a banging price (not much more than a live tree runs at the farm), so if it sucks, we will just go back to a real tree next year I guess. (We were looking at the super fancy ones from like Balsam Hill but there's no way I'm spending $1300 on a Christmas tree!) This is the one we got: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DMSSJ93Q/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_3?smid=A3LRDQCJ73A2H4&th=1 I am going to miss the smell of the live tree, but I won't miss the sap or the needles everywhere!