The Beauty of the Open-Faced Pinblock & Cheap versus Economical

[Andrew and Rebeca Anderson]

I just tuned a 100 year old (this year) Bechstein upright with an 
open-face block.  It had half agraffes all the way up the scale from 
the bottom.  Pulled it up 150 to 200 cents with regular overpull and 
nothing broke.  It was sounding pretty decent on the third touch-up 
pass.  Hammers were a little flat, robbing higher partials but what a 
clean rich sound.

Goes to show that buying a good piano now means you will have a good 
piano for a couple generations.  Customer didn't know what she 
had.  Her parents had bought it for her (long ago) for three hundred 
pesos when there were three pesos to the dollar.  I could assure her 
it was worth much more.

A week before I was called to try to retrieve a no-name upright a few 
decades younger.  About 1/4 of the strings snapped.  Action was 
floppy and the bottom was broken, not supporting the pedals.  Quality 
really is cheaper if you consider the instrument's useful lifetime.

Andrew Anderson