The general meeting for this month will be held on Tuesday, November 8 starting at 7 p.m. at:

Please note: Frank and Camille's will now be closing at 8 p.m. The meeting must begin promptly.

The Executive Committee will meet prior to the general meeting at 5 p.m. at the Olive Garden Restaurant, 1120 Old Country Road, Westbury, diagonally across the street from Frank and Camille's.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: The May 2012 meeting will be held on a Thursday night May 10, instead of our usual Tuesday, to accomodate our guest speaker's schedule. Please make this note in your 2012 appointment books.

This month's technical will be given by Leopold Holder, RPT member of the New York City chapter and president of the New York Piano Center, Inc. Leopold's presentation will encompass all aspects of piano appraisal. Issues that will be covered include the language and legalities surrounding appraisals, and values of pianos in terms of insurance and methods of appraising for different purposes. Also to be discussed will be the definition of what an appraisal is and particularly how it is viewed by the IRS.

Our December meeting will be our annual Holiday Party, to be held on the first Tuesday of the month, December 6, 2011 at 7:00 PM at:

Tesoro Ristorante
967 Old Country Road
Westbury, New York 11590
(516) 334-0022

The full-course dinner is $45 per person (including tax and tip) with a cash bar. We hope everyone will plan to attend. Further details will appear in next month's newsletter. Please send your reservations/payment to our treasurer:

Paul Keogler
C/O Dancing Ivories
11 Washington Avenue
Bay Shore, NY 11706

I recently serviced a new Asian-made studio upright, whose owner complained about the action in the treble section. Indeed, it had an odd, spongy feel with poor repetition. Visual inspection revealed nothing remarkable, with the lost-motion, checking, and blow distance all perfect, as well as the key level and dip, the aftertouch, and key-bushing and balance hole ease. Although action "lock-up" can occur in some compact Asian actions without a jack-stop rail (correctable by moving the let-off rail outward), this was a full-size action and that was not the problem Further inspection showed that the entire let-off rail was too low, let-off being about an inch f rom the strings. This was the result of the mounting forks being made from a metal that was obviously too soft for its intended use, which evidently bent downward when pressure was applied to tighten the mounting fork-screws. Pulling up on each of the three mounting forks with needle-nose pliers (and they bent very easily) re-regulated the let-off quickly and globally for the entire section, and proper performance was restored.
Proof: never assume anything, even on a brand new instrument!