I am also stepping into this conversation because I feel the need to provide some clarifications. I believe it is necessary from the outset to distinguish between the figure of the specialized technician (one who has studied, who has been mentored by industry professionals and who has cultivated an experience that is anything but obvious) and those who improvise as technicians because they need to invent a job otherwise they won't eat. Despite knowing Paolo for several years and knowing much of how piano mechanics work, including tuning procedures etc. etc., I would never dream of going to buy a used piano on my own because money, as I believe almost everyone has to sweat for, is precious, and I prefer to spend 100 euros for a technician's consultation rather than throwing away 4,000/5,000 euros haphazardly... At this point, another distinction is necessary: what is the purpose of my purchase. If I buy the piano as furniture, and have no intention of playing it or will only intend to strum a few little tunes (this also happens in very wealthy families and I have seen with my own eyes Steinway pianos in the hands of 60-year-olds who have been stuck at their first year of piano for a lifetime... For goodness' sake, it is beautiful that people take an interest in music, but an 80,000/100,000 euro piano in the hands of someone stuck at the first year seems to me a bit like throwing money away or wanting to show off) I will not need to bring a technician to choose a used piano. I will focus more on the aesthetic beauty of the instrument and on savings, in my view, and I will evaluate functional characteristics according to my own knowledge. The second example relates to families who, even if well-off, are not swimming in gold and decide to buy an instrument intended for study, as is my case. I bought a brand new piano, so the problem didn't arise, but in the event that I had to purchase a used piano, I would certainly have requested the presence of a specialized technician. The reason is that since I will have to spend a lot of money to purchase a piano on which I will spend many years of study or that I might even keep for my whole life, I want to avoid being ripped off... All of us can go to a retailer and, caught up in the enthusiasm of the purchase, finalize a payment on a piano that, to us self-taught people regarding technical piano knowledge, may seem to be in excellent condition. The problem is that, as stated, we are self-taught. My piano has an average let-off weight of about 60g now that Paolo has replaced my center pins; before calling him, when there were keys at 70g, how it felt to my hand! Most people who buy a piano do so either for the first time or as a replacement for an old piano. In the first case, they have no point of comparison—no matter how much you use coins—and tendon problems from excessive key weight are felt after weeks of playing on a piano with weight distribution problems, not during the 10 minutes of testing before purchase. (@Fra... You mean the coins are a very nice trick perhaps to roughly evaluate the weight of our keyboard on the home piano, but I wouldn't use it at the time of choosing a used piano). In the second case (that of moving to another piano), it is clear that one is trying to jump down from a donkey and mount a horse, but there are different horses and it is not easy for someone who is not experienced to choose and mount a horse that has no problems; at that point, perhaps a healthy donkey would have been better than a lame horse. Therefore, I would not want the purposes of our videos to be confused (I say this in general terms, for everyone). In our videos, we do not teach how to tune a piano, nor do we teach how to adjust the transmission mechanics. We try to explain the technology that underlies the piano so that in case of problems, one can try to explain the type of problem encountered to the technician using correct and understandable terminology, and obviously to protect ourselves from the improvised technicians I mentioned at the beginning of the message; then, obviously, these are tips that can be useful in resolving small inconveniences without having to call a technician. There are some videos where we can afford to use the term "teaching" because the type of argumentation allows it (See the videos on the use of Logic, see those on music theory, but in general, unless specified otherwise, clarifications are given on a subject but one is not taught how to become an artisan via the web). In the tuning video, it is explained how to hear by ear if a piano is in tune or not, the tests to be carried out to check if the correct harmonic relationships exist in different intervals are described, and therefore principles are given for... to understand if the technician has done a good job, it is not specified how to tune a piano, also because via telematics it is impossible. I have assisted Paolo dozens of times during a tuning, I learned how to hold the key in my hand without hurting my shoulder and neck muscles at the end of the work, but I still haven't learned how to perfectly split the middle octave by ear; at the end of the tuning there is always something that wobbles a bit, I repeat, after dozens of assistances and his continuous explanations during every tuning. How can one think of doing the same simply by watching a video? We aim everything towards knowledge, deepening, and perfecting certain concepts (as our introductory video also says), not towards the training of technicians. There are people like Paolo but also other technicians who have studied for their craft in many parts of the world; I am talking about Paolo because he is the only one whose movements I know. Courses for maintenance, restoration, and repair technicians of pianos in America, apprenticeship with great names in the field of tuning, perfection courses in France... I mean, you don't wake up in the morning, watch two videos, and become a piano technician. Some are technicians because they have assisted expert personnel for years and that's fine with me, but we are always there, they didn't just improvise. I use logic a lot in things and often look at the piano, the mechanics etc. with the help of this skill, but unfortunately it is not enough; I had to realize on my own skin that there is a need for the right tools which I assure you are by no means given away for free by shopkeepers, also because alas shops supplied with professional material are only in America, but above all there is a need for much experience and knowledge of the instrument. I repeat it for the last time otherwise I'll seem boring 😛: our videos are for knowledge and deepening. In our first video of the series "Journey inside the piano" this is specified: all musicians know their own instrument, few pianists know the technology of the piano. But obviously, just as pianists have their technician, violinists have their master luthier.
Obviously these lines I have written are addressed to everyone and are just my personal opinions, so don't hold it against me Fra.
A big hello!
