Piano gets its revenge...

[piano2ba1 at att.net]

Recently I tripped over my own feet, so to speak by being diplomatic about a rebuild job done by a major piano restorer here in New York. Back in the 80's they 'rebuilt' a Model M Steinway keeping the old pinblock and sounding board while restringing it with oversize tuning pins. It's been about 20-25 years and many of the tuning pins were loose. Most were in the bass. I carelessly drove in the offenders without thought of what happens when the bottom coil meets the plate hole's edge. The string gets pinched and eventually may break next to the coil- duh! Now I have to order a bass string again and return a third time to the customer in Manhattan where parking is very difficult. 


-------------- Original message from pianotune05 at comcast.net: -------------- 


My only mishap in my tuning career so far was a brused up knee when I tripped over and knoced over a bench recently.  The area was dark and I was all nervous being a new tuner etc.  It was a Young Chang piano bench, well the piano was anyway. :)
Marshall

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: John Ross <jrpiano at win.eastlink.ca> 

1 Broken nose, and two black eyes, from a tilter mishap. Strap it in place now.
2 Toe broken in three places, when I wasn't careful about moving a piano, with one hand, on a carpet, and the wheel didn't swivel, so it tipped.
Caused me to be limping at the Dearborn convention. :-(
Takes something like this to happen, say every 10 years, so we don't get too complacent.
John M. Ross
Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada.
jrpiano at win.eastlink.ca
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Fenton Murray 
To: Pianotech List 
Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2006 11:53 AM
Subject: Re: Piano gets its revenge...


I still limp once in a while from 3 broken toes a piano gave me when it came off a tilter 25 years ago. If I ever see that piano again I'll show it the meaning of revenge. Ruined all chance of me becoming a ballet dancer.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: piannaman at aol.com 
To: pianotech at ptg.org 
Sent: Sunday, May 07, 2006 5:20 PM
Subject: Piano gets its revenge...


 I've got this great customer who bought a brand now Mason and Hamlin 50 inch upright at my suggestion.  She gets her piano tuned every 6 months like clockwork.  When I tuned it back in November, the tuning hammer slipped out of my hand and the head put a big ding in the fallboard.....:-{.  Bummer.  I ponied up the cash to have a real refinisher go out and make it right.  

Friday, I went back to tune the piano again.   Fortunately, it's getting more stable, and it didn't need a pitch raise.  I'm tuning along, thinking how great it is to be ahead of schedule, when pop goes the weasel.  String #34, A2 lower unison, broke right at the becket!  So much for being ahead of schedule...

Mason and Hamlin is sending me a new string.  In the meantime, I tied a knot, which would be a perfectly good repair in an older piano.   But since the piano is less than a year old, the string really needs to be replaced.

So I was thinking as I left...do pianos have poltergeists in them?  Sometimes I think they must.  I swear, there are some pianos that don't seem to like me--and I reciprocate the feeling.

Any other piano-gets-revenge stories?

Dave Stahl


Dave Stahl Piano Service
650-224-3560
dstahlpiano at sbcglobal.net
http://dstahlpiano.net/
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