It's hard enough to find a qualified piano tuner in the Los Angeles
area that will even "touch" a player these days. When your quest is
for someone to come to your house to work on a Seeburg E with violin
pipes, you'd probably have better odds at winning Super Lotto.
My Seeburg E sounded real nice after its rebuilding but after about six
months it needed a tuning (to A-435). Of course, the next day a string
broke in the treble, and a damper fell-off in the mid-range. So now my
piano plays away with an annoying "pling" when that one string is hit,
and with an even more annoying resonance after a tune stops where that
damper is missing.
Why it this occurred is anyone's guess. Why the tech won't return my
calls for help doesn't surprise me. No one wants to touch a coin piano.
Too much effort? Not enough expertise?
All the old-timers tuners are gone from Southern California; one has
bailed out of the player biz for good, the others don't want to come
near a Seeburg. No wonder I dread that time when my coin piano needs
a "tuning." Odds are it'll need something else the day after. It never
seems to fail, at least for me here in SoCal.
From the sound of the expert piano technicians on MMD it seems I would
have to assess a five-minute major for "fighting" if they all came to
my house to take a shot at tuning my piano.
What's a layman to do? Who are ya gonna call?
Cheers,
Mark Forer
|