My first mistake as a fledgling piano technician came on my initial day on the job in the summer of 2008. David had hired me to help out with his tuning/repair business.
On day one he assigned me the task of refelting a keybed while he was out on his tuning rounds. I was to remove and replace the front rail and balance rail felts, then strip off the old backrail felt and replace it with the corresponding thickness of new felt. In my defense, I heard his instructions to glue along the front edge only, but I assumed he was just skimping on glue for reasons of economy. I reasoned that glue couldn’t be that expensive, and decided to do the job right. I slathered the strip of green felt with glue, spreading it even with a butter knife and feeling quite pleased with work—right up until David got home late in the afternoon. Apparently there was a reason (other than saving a penny) for gluing the front edges only. The keys, as it turns out, rest primarily on the back half of the back rail felt. By gluing the front of the felt but not the back, less sound would be transmitted when the keys dropped back into position. A-hah!
David didn’t get upset—he just got out a sharp chisel and put me to work scraping off the ruined felt to start over again. I learned a lesson that day—that there is usually a reason for doing things the way they are ordinarily done. Especially when it comes to gluing parts together, following accepted protocols is important. Certain procedures that might on first glance seem to be halfway measures (such as the case of back rail cloth) are worth describing in detail, if only to help someone avoid the type of mistake I made.
On day one he assigned me the task of refelting a keybed while he was out on his tuning rounds. I was to remove and replace the front rail and balance rail felts, then strip off the old backrail felt and replace it with the corresponding thickness of new felt. In my defense, I heard his instructions to glue along the front edge only, but I assumed he was just skimping on glue for reasons of economy. I reasoned that glue couldn’t be that expensive, and decided to do the job right. I slathered the strip of green felt with glue, spreading it even with a butter knife and feeling quite pleased with work—right up until David got home late in the afternoon. Apparently there was a reason (other than saving a penny) for gluing the front edges only. The keys, as it turns out, rest primarily on the back half of the back rail felt. By gluing the front of the felt but not the back, less sound would be transmitted when the keys dropped back into position. A-hah!
David didn’t get upset—he just got out a sharp chisel and put me to work scraping off the ruined felt to start over again. I learned a lesson that day—that there is usually a reason for doing things the way they are ordinarily done. Especially when it comes to gluing parts together, following accepted protocols is important. Certain procedures that might on first glance seem to be halfway measures (such as the case of back rail cloth) are worth describing in detail, if only to help someone avoid the type of mistake I made.