I'd guess it was in or near a fire. Roy Ulrich ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mitch Ruth" <mitch_ruth@hotmail.com> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Monday, November 13, 2000 9:10 AM Subject: Wanna Guess? NPR (Not Politically Related) > Hey List, > > I had an interesting call on Saturday and I wanted to see if you wanted to > have a little fun with it. > > I went out into the hinterlands (not far for me)to a home with an Everett > spinet sized piano. I turned out to be an early 50's model with a bent-key > direct blow action (I don't know the proper tech term for it.) It was given > to this family by "a friend" so that the little girl there might learn to > play. > > Of course this piano was about 130 cents flat. However I am a hearty soul, > who reads his pianotech posts, and will tackle this in stride. Upon > inspection I discovered that the upper portion of the strings were ENCASED > in rust (not just a little corrosion, rust)and the bass windings were black. > The plate was a blackish color and the felt was a little gray. Puzzled I > looked behind the kick plate and discovered everything normal for this > piano...no rust, windings,plate, and bridges looked good. The lid on the > piano was a little scarred but not badly. there was a small place on the > side of the piano that was blistered. > > I determined that the piano would be impossible to tune without a > restringing and I could not recommend restringing this instrument. After a > discussion with the parents, I found they could not afford a better > instrument at this time, so I fixed a few ringing dampers so the piano could > at least make noise. While I was doing that, I came up with what I thought > was what happened to this piano that created the problem. > I thought it might be fun to see if you can guess what happened to it. I > don't know for sure but I think I've got it down. > > Now "It's an Everett" is not an acceptable answer for the purposes of my > game. The only prize with be the satisfaction of a job well done and the > joy of participating in a string that does not include American politics (By > the way I hear we are going to change our national motto to "Just Keep > Counting"). > > Have at it > > Mitch Ruth > DeMossville, KY > > "Hold on to your dreams, unless you dream of porcupines..." > > _________________________________________________________________________ > Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. > > Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at > http://profiles.msn.com. >
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