One-man piano move?

[Wimblees@AOL.COM]

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
In a message dated 7/10/02 11:52:18 AM Central Daylight Time, 
MWisner@yamaha.com writes:


> In the book The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by T E Carhart, the author d
> escribes a "baby" grand being moved up a flight of stairs and into his 
> Paris apartment by a piano mover who strapped the piano across his back, 
> with the curve resting on his shoulder.  I'd have dismissed this passage as 
> the meanderings of a clouded and uninformed mind if the author wasn't so 
> accurate in virtually every other technical aspect of the piano.  Has 
> anyone ever heard of such a thing?   
> Mark Wisner
> 
> 

I read the book and remembered saying to my self, "this man is strong." I 
believe the he had a special blanket arrangement on his back. Small grands 
weigh about 600 pounds. Although this is not something for everyone, it is 
not uncommon for one to be able to have that much weight on his back. Once it 
is balanced, if the legs are strong enough, it can be done. 

I rebuilt an old 6' Knabe grand, which had to be moved to the second floor. 
Thiose thigns are heavy, and weigh about 750 - 800 pounds. My usual moving 
company did this, but the customer wanted me be to be there to "supervise." 
George, the leader of the crew, put the piano (on a skid), on the stairs, 
with the tail up. Two guys picked up the tail end, and he got on the keybed 
side. At first I thought they were going to step it up, one at a time. But on 
the count of three, the two guys picked up the tail end and George picked up 
the keybed end, and he muscled it up the stairs, quicker than I could go up 
the stairs by my self. It was up in less than 5 seconds. He wasn't even 
breathing hard when he got to the top of the stairs, and he smokes!!!

With proper conditioning, and the know how, moving a small baby grand up the 
steps by yourself can be done. 

Wim 

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/ee/fa/c0/14/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--