At 5:01 PM -0700 4/24/00, Charly Tuner wrote: >I have a feeling that I'm not the only one who has bumped, slammed, smashed, >or otherwise made painful contact with our friend the piano. I'd like to >hear from other techs who have stories of their WORST mishap involving their >work with pianos...should prove immensely interesting! In 3/86, I was re-attatching the bell to a Steinway AI rim, seated on the floor using a screwdriver bit in a brace. At a certain point the large wood screws were pointing near-horizontal and outwards (outside the rim. The bit jumped the slot on one of them, and did a bee-line for my right eye-ball, going through the retina like a roto-tiller. That was 10:30a. By 2p I was on the operating table at the regional hospital and back home 3 days later. On pain medication for three weeks, slowly resumed tuning in the second month, and started to drive again by the third. Another 1/4" further and the best-case scenario would have been my wife (bless her) spoon-feeding me for the rest of my life. As it is, I'm blind and slightly wall-eyed on that side. My buddies all got together and voted me the "DUMMY OF THE YEAR" award. A variant of mideastern justice: an Eye for an A. Bill Ballard, RPT New Hampshire Chapter, PTG "Woh" ...........Keanu Reeves in "The Matrix"
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC