survivor pianos

[Dave Nereson]

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    A friend who works at a hotel found a 5'1" Hamilton grand in the =
dumpster, half-buried with drywall debris from a remodeling job in the =
hotel.    Apparently there was a fire in the lounge where the piano was =
and though the piano didn't actually burn, the fire department came in =
and doused the room with whatever they use (foam, water ...).  They =
must've figured the piano was a loss and dumped it, but I went to look =
at it (first time I ever appraised a piano in a dumpster) and it was =
basically intact -- just extremely dirty with soot and sludge.  No =
cracks in the soundboard, no burnt wood -- the fire must've been in =
another part of the room.
    Anyway, after digging through piles of other hotel garbage to find =
the pedal lyre and the legs,  we had it hauled to where we could work on =
it and attacked it with vacuum cleaner, brushes, rags, and then did a =
Dremel-thon all over the strings, hitch pins, tuning pins, bridge pins, =
etc. to get rid of what was mostly recent surface rust from the foam.  =
Either high heat or fire extinguishing chemicals made some felt pads in =
the trapwork turn to a material resembling Bakelite.  And I was able to =
get 1 to 1 1/2 turns out of some of the plate screws when I tightened =
them.  (Maybe they hadn't been tightened since it was built).  But the =
action was in amazingly good condition and still worked.  The ivory =
keytops survived; plastic ones probably would've melted or warped or =
shriveled.  =20
    Really didn't have much hope for the thing, but didn't want to throw =
away a piano without seeing if it could be salvaged, partly as a favor =
to starving-artist-type jazz musicians who can't even afford a used =
spinet.
    After several hours' preparatory work, polishing damper wires and =
easing their holes, I raised pitch a half-step and only two plain-wire =
strings broke.  Pin torque was fine.  Bass strings were pretty dead, =
though [why is it that liquids make bass strings go dead?], and 6 or 7 =
of them broke, all in the upper bass.  Otherwise, it sounded fairly =
decent, considering its ordeal, and after restringing the bass, it'll be =
a workable piano and have a new life.

    Also heard at a chapter meeting of a client who found an old upright =
at a garage sale, bought it, took it home, removed the action, and hosed =
it down in the backyard with, yes, water, not air.  It dried out =
eventually, then he called a tuner.  The thing still worked, but with =
very loose action centers.   Only a few hammer felts separated from the =
mouldings (the guy tried not to get too much water on 'em).  How all the =
other felts stayed glued on is beyond me. =20

    Then there was a brand new Yamaha import console that fell backwards =
off a truck, landed face first on a very steep street, hit the cheek =
blocks and front edge of the lid first, then bounced/rolled over onto =
its back, but only suffered a large gouges in the top lid, re-shaped =
cheek blocks, and a few scuffs here and there.  Everything else was =
intact except the action got forced toward the strings and needed some =
unbending of the action rest bolts and some damper regulation.  Been =
tuning it for years now and it seems fine.

    Surely there was at least one large grand piano on the Titanic.  I =
wonder if anyone . . . . nahhh!

    --David Nereson, RPT, Denver

   =20

   
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