new one

[pianoman]

Today I ran across something I have never seen before.  This fellow called
me up for a tuning appointment for his Baldwin console.  It had been about
5 years since last tuned and he said he thought he had a bug problem as
something had eaten through the protective felt covering over the pinblock.
When I got there this morning and opened the lid, WOW.  There was one place
about 4 inches in diameter eaten through down into the wood in back of the
pinblock and directly above that into the bottom surface of the lid.  I
told him that the felt covering should be removed so we could see the
extent of the damage.  He tore it off and all along the top were gaping
holes and the space between the back post ends were hollow from being eaten
away.  In addition, I guess because the filler block had been eaten away
the pinblock was separated from the back about 1/8" or so .  The dampers
were not raising from the strings properly and the pitch was over -120c
flat in the middle and worse towards the treble end.  I told him that the
normal fix was to pull the front to the back with clamps and put in lag
screws gluing everything back together but the problem was that there is
nothing to glue the pinblock back to.  Strangely enough there was no other
damage over the rest of the piano inside or out.  I don't know enough about
termites but it would seem that they would be damaging something else close
by.  He said the piano had been in the same place for over 10 years.  I
advised that he call an exterminator to check out the damage and to see if
he could recognize the perpetrator.  The eaten away part was a drab gray
flaky color.  I advised also to check with his insurance to see if he had
any coverage due to insect damage and wrote on his receipt that I thought
the piano was a total loss and see if that would get him anywhere. 
Remember this is not in the tropics where this may be common, it is the St.
Louis suburbs not far from where I live.
	Do you think I gave the right advice?



James Grebe
R.P.T. from St. Louis
pianoman@inlink.com
"I am only as good as my last tuning"