How vermin benefit mankind

[Michael Magness]

On 10/3/07, Alan Barnard <pianotuner at embarqmail.com> wrote:
>
> Case file: Customer calls with a 1920s Gulbransen upright which was, until
> undergoing a major tubes-and-bellows-ectomy, a player, but now coaches in
> the minor leagues. It lives at a resort where it was stored, unplayed by
> humans, for 10 years on a screened porch. "It still sounds great," says the
> owner, "but the tuning might need touching up." (Yes, think I, and the
> Titanic might need a new paint job, too.)
>
> Inspection: Actually not too bad. 60 cents flat, or so. Bass a little
> tubby. Tuner also a little tubby, but that's another story. Some mouse
> damage and a giant mouse nest under the bass keys.
>
> Worst physical problem: Keys rattle and wobble like crazy at the front
> rail. I put them in Spurlock racks and take them to Ye Olde Shoppe for
> rebushing without even bothering to  look at the undersides of the keys.
>
> UFO Sightings and Other Weird Stuff: I turn the keys over on the bench,
> ready to soak, steam, yuck and pluck the old felt out. Ain't none. Gone.
> 99.9  percent gone; clean, no damage to the wood, mortises look like they
> were just cut. Only two teeeensy vestiges of red felt left to give evidence
> that they keys had *ever* been felted. Nice surprise to find 1/2 the job
> done!
>
> Mystery: Who et 'em? Roaches? Moths? Tiny aliens? Mice would have torn up
> the wood and couldn't have got up into the mortises so effectively,
> methinks.
>
> Reason for Wondering: I want to find the perps who did this. I want to
> domesticate them. I want to train them to do this work on demand; their
> craftsmanship or, should I say, craftsverminship is excellent. I want to
> rent them out, as a team, to you other techs for big bucks.
>
> Ohandbytheway: After reinstalling the keys, easing and squeezing, removing
> about three bucketsful of lost motion, etc., the piano really is, as I was
> told, not to durned bad. It has a big, rich sound, is very musical, and
> plays well. Whaddayaknow!
>
> Alan Barnard
> Salem, MO
>
>


Carpet Beetles?
I've seen them do what you describe but they eat everything that was wool
felt under the keys, punchings, backrail felt everything! Then they start on
the balance rail and other felt!
Mike
-- 
You never truly understand something until you can explain it to your
grandmother. --Albert Einstein

Michael Magness
Magness Piano Service
608-786-4404
www.IFixPianos.com
email mike at ifixpianos.com
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