Getting quality work

These silver colored bridge pin "replacement" pieces in the middle of the photo are the result of a lazy or uneducated piano technician.

The staples holding the strings to the bridge are an example of the same lazy or uneducated technician.

      There is no need for this type of work. I wouldn't even bet that this guy even saved the owners any money by going this route. If I were a betting man I would bet that he saved himself a couple of hours and charged the customer about the same amount. There is an issue with the strings coming off of the bridge on this piano hence the staples you see in the bottom photo. It could be structural and it could be that it was 160 cents low. (100 cents is an entire 1/2 step in notes.) So when you played an A on this piano you were hearing somewhere between G# and G. That creates a lot of slack in the piano strings allowing the piano to lay around in ways that it was not designed to do. Most pianos have between 17 and 22 tons of pressure pulling on the cast iron plate when they are to pitch, and tuned correctly. Allowing this kind of slack for too many years can cause structural problems or the sound board to flatten out. Both of these problems are usually either permanent or VERY, VERY expensive to fix. (Did I say VERY?)