Conover 88, what a day!! (long)

[Farrell]

Quite the scheme here! I trust you are aware that people with trucks, liftgates and helpers move pianos for a living? I've got my guy on my speed dial! I know, I know, to each their own.

I service one of these Conovers. It is indeed an attractive piano.

I think most any scrap metal hauler will pick your plate up for free. It's a bunch of metal in a small package - they like that. Look in your local Yellow Pages under scrap metal and you might have some luck.

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Greg Newell" <gnewell@ameritech.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 02, 2002 3:56 AM
Subject: Re: Conover 88, what a day!! (long)


> Rob,
>          You sure did go through a lot. I hope it proves to be worth it!
> 
> Greg Newell
> 
> P.S. after a day like that ... what'r you doin up at this hour?
> 
> 
> At 03:39 AM 6/2/2002, you wrote:
> >Today was a very tiring day...
> >
> >Several days ago I received a phone call from a local resident.  His name 
> >was Jose, and in his crude English I understood him to say that he had a 
> >piano in his garage and he wanted to give it away.  "Is it a grand piano 
> >or an upright piano?" I asked.  Having dealt with so many "free" junk 
> >pianos, I was very skeptical.  He indicated that it was a grand but didn't 
> >know much about it.  I asked him if he knew what brand.  He said that it 
> >was a Conover.  He could not give me any additional information.
> >
> >I am rather fond of the Conover model "88".  It is a well built piano and 
> >closely resembles the Mason & Hamlin "A" in multiple aspects.  They have 
> >an excellent tone with a strong bass.  I was excited at the thought of 
> >possibly getting a free Conover "88".   When I arrived I was overjoyed to 
> >learn that it was indeed a model "88". Then the bomb fell. He wasn't 
> >looking for someone to give the piano to.  He wanted to give away "the 
> >parts".  Huh??????  As it turned out he was the leader of a salsa 
> >band.  What he really wanted was to gut the piano of the action and plate 
> >and then install a digital keyboard in the case.  His intent was to have a 
> >"grand piano look" on the stage yet something that could be easily broken 
> >down to move to the next gig.  Sheesh!  Here was this beautiful gem of a 
> >piano, certainly worthy of restoration, and all he wanted was to butcher 
> >it so that he could have a "grand piano look"!  I hesitated for a moment 
> >trying to think of something to say.  In desperation all I could come up 
> >with was, "I think that there could be other pianos more suited for your 
> >needs.  Let me see if I can come up with a solution for you." Then half 
> >way down the driveway it hit me.  I have another client, "Richard", who 
> >lives on the other side of town.
> >
> >Richard is a 71 year old jazz musician who recently moved to Las Vegas 
> >from the Bay area.  He brought an old Wurlitzer grand with him which 
> >quickly deteriorated in the dry desert.  When he called me to come and 
> >take a look at it the pins were so loose that you could practically turn 
> >them by hand.  The rest of the piano reflected similar conditions, 
> >although the case did look fairly decent.  Richard needed a playable piano 
> >but had very little money to spend on one.  I admittedly felt a bit sorry 
> >for him, and I told him that I would keep an eye out for a decent cheap 
> >piano.
> >
> >So the connection was there; Jose needed a stage prop but had a beautiful 
> >Conover that I wanted, and Richard had a useless grand that needed to be 
> >disposed.  I presented the idea to Jose.  He was hesitant but agreed to 
> >look at the Wurlitzer.  On my way home I called Richard. He agreed to the 
> >arrangement but reiterated his need for a playable piano.  I agreed that I 
> >would find him one if he would be a little patient.  Next I approached the 
> >dealer that I do PianoDisc work for.  I was told that "there might be 
> >something in the warehouse that could be salvaged".  I took the chance.
> >
> >I arranged a time for Jose' to look at Richard's piano the next morning. 
> >Then another problem.  The following morning Richard calls me and says he 
> >forgot that he had an appointment.  But Jose was on his way, and I had no 
> >way to change the time!  Richard agreed to leave the key with the 
> >management of his apartment.  So Jose arrives... and the manager is 
> >gone!  Needless to say this did not help my relations department, and 
> >Jose' was becoming irritated.  Through another series of events we 
> >rearranged a meeting later in the day.  It finally worked, and Jose viewed 
> >the piano.  He seemed very unenthusiastic, and I pretty much gave up on 
> >the effort.  Then to my total shock, Jose calls me at 7:30 that evening 
> >saying that he wanted the piano!  The catch of course was that he wanted 
> >$500.00, the amount that he supposedly paid for the Conover, (so he 
> >says).  I agreed.
> >
> >So here's how it works:  In order to get the Conver "88" I had to provide 
> >Jose a substitute piano.  To do this I needed Richard's Wurlitzer. But in 
> >order to get the Wurlitzer I needed to get Richard a playable piano from 
> >the music dealer's used stash in the warehouse. Then I would have to make 
> >Richard's new piano playable and gut the plate and action out of his old 
> >one.  Following that I would have to rent a trailer to move it to Jose's 
> >house.  Then I would need to load up the Conover to take it to my house, 
> >all before any parties involved had the chance to change their mind!
> >
> >I consulted Alan Meyer, my partner with whom I install PianoDiscs.  He 
> >will be joining me on the rebuilding shop venture and ultimately helping 
> >in the restoration job of the Conover 88 in question.  Early this morning 
> >I rented the trailer and met Alan at Richard's house.  In his living room 
> >we completely gutted the Wurlitzer, plate, action, strings and all.  This 
> >of course took two hours longer than expected, and I would have to inform 
> >Jose that we would be late.  Naturally I lost the paper with the phone 
> >number, so now I risked irritating the fragile agreement.  We continued 
> >the dissection of the Wurlitzer.  As we loaded it up we discovered that 
> >the piano would barely clear the roof of the trailer.  We also loaded up 
> >the plate which we now needed to find a place to ditch.  Suddenly I found 
> >Jose's number.  I called him and he was cool so off we went.
> >
> >We arrived at Jose's house and unloaded the now extremely light Wurlitzer 
> >case with ease and prepared to load up the Conover.  Surprise! Jose had 
> >already made an effort to remove the plate of the Conover and had loosened 
> >and/or removed all the plate bolts and screws... under full tension!  We 
> >quickly locked them all down again with no further incident.  After 
> >getting the massively heavy beast on the skid board, however, (he had it 
> >laying on bare concrete), it made some pretty awful creaking sounds, so we 
> >stopped and took the tension off the plate.  Next we rolled it out to the 
> >trailer only to discover that it was too darn tall to fit 
> >inside!  Thinking creatively we decided to heave the massive thing into 
> >the back of Alan's pick up.  I won't go into the details on how we did 
> >this, but fair it said that it was not fun.
> >
> >To complicate matters Alan had to be at the Golden Gate casino by 4:00 for 
> >a tuning gig involving a recording, and it was getting late.  We carefully 
> >and slowly made our way to my house.  Alan had to get to the Golden gate 
> >immediately, only this huge beast was on his little pick-up. We quickly 
> >unhitched the trailer from MY truck so that he could use it to get to his 
> >gig.  In the meantime I had to move a mountain of stuff in my garage to 
> >make room for the piano.  Two and a half hours later Alan returned.  To 
> >get the piano off the truck we needed to stack a huge pile of plywood up 
> >to build a ramp, (I live in a rural area and there are no curbs to back up 
> >to). Amazingly we managed to unload the thing and get it in the 
> >garage.  Whew!!!!!!!!!  What you have to go through to get an unplayable 
> >piano to rebuild!  Now I still have to get Richard a piano which I will 
> >have to make playable without charge to him!
> >
> >Oh, I still have a Wurlitzer plate to get rid of.
> >
> >
> >Rob Goodale, RPT
> >Las Vegas, NV
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> 
> Greg Newell
> mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net
>