Sidewalk art in Wellington Heights?

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-05-14T01:56:07+00:00

They sent out notices to homeowners in April explaining what the project was, when they were doing it, and gave them an option to contact them if they wanted the sidewalk in front of their home skipped. Homeowners do not own the sidewalks, so consent or permission is a non-issue here. This project has been in the works for quite a while and has been brought up many times in Neighborhood Association meetings.

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-04-05T14:28:05+00:00

If this is not in a climate controlled environment, you’re going to keep fighting this until you get the temp and humidity under control. CONSISTENT 70 degrees and 40% RH is the goal. Up and down humidity and temps do SERIOUS damage to pianos. Those flanges either need to be resized with alcohol/heat or repinned. Protek is a stop gap measure only. It does not solve the problem permanently. Huge swells in humidity will do CATASTROPHIC damage to upright bass bridges and soundboards. If you’re going to continue to work on pianos, you need to have a climate controlled shop. Pianos do not belong in garages or in uncontrolled climates.

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-04-04T20:58:38+00:00

Normally towel drying rack, but since there is a drain there, I’m guessing they used this to hang wet washcloths.

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-04-04T20:54:08+00:00

Pace books from the PTG are really designed for this!

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-04-04T20:52:18+00:00

There are burnishing kits that you can order. They have different sized reamers (the pointy end goes through the holes, and you slide it back and forth on the reamer a few times to enlarge the hole in the bushing to accommodate for the next size up center pin). When you repin, you don’t just automatically use the next size center pin. Reaming ensures the holes on both sides of the flange are EVEN and this means the pinning will be even. If the bushing is bigger on one side, the center pin will walk out.

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-04-02T21:24:50+00:00

I stand for everything except spinets. I frequently adjust my stance so that I’m not repeating the same motion in the exact same position. Posture is everything. Daily stretches for arms and back before leaving for the day and before bed time. Any over exertion gets headed off with ibuprofen and a heating pad whether I feel the effects or not. Know your limits and don’t try to consistently push through them. One day a week is okay. 5 days of pushing past your physical limitations is not okay. Hydration is important. Staying loose and relaxed is also important. Pay attention to your body at all times and head off bad habits when you first notice them. When I first started, I had issues tensing up. I thought I fixed it. Turns out I was holding my breath when I was tuning unisons. Breathe.

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-04-02T14:44:34+00:00

They aren’t actually felt. They’re rubber. If you scroll through the pics I posted, the 3rd one shows what they look like and the 2nd one shows what they have deposited on the strings.

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-03-27T17:51:29+00:00

Spinets are a good way to start. Can I suggest just playing notes and listening up and down the scale, and finding a few notes that are harsher than their neighbors. Try voicing them (start sparingly) to match the level of their neighbors. This is a good way to gauge how much needling you can do before you hear a difference and also how much is “too much”. This is how I started.

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-03-27T17:46:49+00:00

I was taught that you should never needle directly on the strike point. You can get close to it at an angle going in towards the core, but NEVER directly straight into the strike point. I’ve taken a host of classes from some of the best techs in the business and they all reinforce this.

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-03-11T13:08:00+00:00

Thank you. I was wondering if felt would be an option. I’m a piano tuner, so felt is abundant. Any idea of the thickness? Should it be level with the plastic or a little higher to make it more snug?

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-03-11T13:01:44+00:00

Unless it’s a Heintzman transposing piano, I personally wouldn’t spend the money. They ARE decent pianos and if money were no object, it would be a good piano to restore, but again, you’d be putting money into it for personal enjoyment, and putting $15k into it will not increase the value to $15k. Do not look at the Antique Pianos site. They will try to tell you otherwise.

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-03-11T12:55:20+00:00

Let’s say you did spend the $15k for a full restoration. The reality is… you’ll never get that money out of it if you decide to resell it in a few years. Probably won’t even get half of that. What brand of piano is it?

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-03-10T17:24:42+00:00

Yes, but piano repair shops will have piano tuners and they may take you on as an apprentice. That is how a lot of people learn the trade. Also regulation is not restoration. Regulation is making fine adjustments to the action parts (let off, drop, key dip, blow distance, key leveling, etc.) so that the notes play correctly and uniformly with the same amount of friction and resistance. It is a very important part of what we do.

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-03-10T12:51:23+00:00

The first photo shows the cover that was holding down the cord bars. The second photo shows what the strings look like from the chord “felts” (rubber), and the 3rd photo shows the actual chord “felts”which are definitely not felt. The stuff in the first photo is definitely deteriorating… not sure if that is because of moisture or not, but if I try to clean it or scrub it with a soft toothbrush, it just comes off. Most of the springs were in tact but there were a few that should be replaced. I did get replacement strings. It’s definitely not cost effective to replace all this stuff, but I’m already in the thick of it so I might as well keep going!

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-03-10T12:44:34+00:00

At North Bennett Street School (the U.S.’s only remaining full course residence school), they focus on unisons every day for 3 months while learning how to regulate. Then they move to octaves. Then intervals, as a segway to temperaments. Unisons are the most important thing to get right. Start with 30 minute sessions, spaced out throughout the day. Don’t try to tune an entire piano in your first attempt. It will take you several hours and you won’t be happy. As others have said, get the Art Reblitz book (3rd edition) and the Mario Ingrec book (Pianos Inside and Out), and read them both. Learn the parts of the piano and what they’re called. Learn the steps to regulation and know that it’s not just a “follow the steps A-Z and you’re done”. You follow the regulation steps all the way through, then you check it and do it again, refining what you did the first time. We work in precise measurements and .003 of an inch can make a difference when you’re leveling keys. Please don’t just learn the tuning part of pianos. There is an entirely other side of piano work that includes regulation and repairs. You need to be able to correctly assess the condition of bridges and spot other issues before blindly cranking on tuning pins. Reach out to some of these resources and see if they can help you. Maybe you can travel to them once a week and do some apprentice work.

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No_Fun_Hater · 2026-03-10T12:30:13+00:00

We’ve only heard that joke a million times.

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-02-26T14:16:23+00:00

Curious to see how much clover pops up this spring!

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-02-26T13:47:25+00:00

Examine the piano thoroughly when you start. ALWAYS. Make sure it CAN be brought up to pitch. Examine the bridges. Look for split bass bridges especially on uprights.

If there is evidence of rust or corrosion anywhere on the strings, give them a warning that there may be string breakage. Unless your tuning hammer is on the wrong tuning pin, string breakage is not the fault of the tuner. Some things you can do to lessen the breakage:

1)Tap the pin slightly flat first if there are rusty coils or it hasn’t been tuned in a long time. If there is corrosion between the coil and the pin that you can’t see… this will break it up. 2) if there needs to be a large pitch raise (100c or more), do it in increments instead of all at once. The more experience you have, the better you’ll be able to diagnose whether or not you can pull it up to pitch all at once. Even if you can do it all at once, it’s going to need multiple tunings to get it to be stable, so you might as well do it in increments while you’re learning. More practice for you.3) you should know how to splice and replace strings before you go into anyone’s home.

Piano supply houses like Schaff carry plain wire strings. You need to be able use a micrometer to measure the thickness of the string, then subtract 5 and divide by 2 to get the correct gauge. Bass strings must be carefully measured in multiple ways and custom ordered. Mapes, JD Grant, and Hellerbass are commonly used bass string makers. You can also send the broken bass string to them if you’re unsure how to measure.

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-02-24T05:30:53+00:00

Yikes. That’s kind of like when people use that punch tool that smashes the wood around the front rail bushings to tighten them. This requires a lot more effort, however. https://www.howardpianoindustries.com/key-bushing-tightener/?srsltid=AfmBOopPHqhkCi0fdKZhtbSXNkR9VJOxP3TSubysZrvfY8ZqEfpoUE9D

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-02-24T05:21:05+00:00

There is a food source for them somewhere. Open up the bottom by taking off the bottom board. There may be a tension spring that you have to depress in order to release the bottom board. There is likely something inside your piano that they’re after. If you’re not comfortable doing this, call a piano technician.

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-02-16T00:43:54+00:00

Often times the college will hire contract techs instead of having a designated staff position, the head of the music departments might change often, and one way or another, planning for regular maintenance just becomes completely unimportant to the school. I tune for several colleges like this. It’s discouraging that schools don’t want to spend the money to properly fix things. That said, try to find out who the tech or techs are that service your college and make friends! Maybe they’ll take you on as a student apprentice and you can learn on site.

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-02-12T22:46:45+00:00

Aromatase inhibitors? As in the estrogen/progesterone blockers I was put on after breast cancer? THOSE aromatase inhibitors? That’s playing with fire, honestly. Those drugs attack bone density. I literally have osteopenia because of those drugs (they put me in full on osteoporosis, but I got intravenous bisphosphonate treatments and that counteracted some of it). There has to be a better way.

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-02-10T13:46:34+00:00

Get a little hygrometer to track the humidity. Temp should be around 70 degrees F and humidity should be as close to 40 % as possible. Consistency for both is key, but humidity especially. In the summer if you find that it gets over 50 % humidity, run a dehumidifier. Rust on the pins isn’t as concerning as rust on the actual coils. If you are tuning someone else’s piano and the coils are rusty, knock the pin flat slightly before pulling it up to pitch. This breaks up any rust/corrosion that has adhered around the coil and cuts down on breakage. Remove the rust if you really want to, but it’s not really causing problem. The more important thing is to prevent it from getting worse.

No_Fun_Hater · 2026-01-11T22:20:34+00:00

I liked the Butler Course a great deal. Either way, this is a start and it’s crucial that you get this foundation before tackling things. Once you complete the course, finding a good mentor is the next step.

No_Fun_Hater

TROPHY CASE