It was all my fault

[Wolfley, Eric (WOLFLEEL)]

Wim,

What a clever way to get a new concert instrument! However you must warn the
prof. who is getting the repaired instrument that once one student pisses in
a piano, others are sure to piss in the same place.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eric Wolfley, RPT
Head Piano Technician
Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music
University of Cincinnati
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Wimblees@aol.com [SMTP:Wimblees@aol.com]
> Sent:	Thursday, June 06, 2002 3:15 PM
> To:	caut@ptg.org; Pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject:	It was all my fault
> 
> As per my report of a couple of weeks ago, I need to admit that the
> vandalism to the Concert Hall Steinway was all my fault. After reviewing
> the facts, and speculating on what happened, there is only one conclusion.
> It was my lack of foresight that I forced someone one to destroy the
> piano. 
> 
> As far as we can piece the course of events together, this is what
> happened. High school students, fresh from a party celebrating graduation,
> jimmied some locks on the building doors, and entered the building in the
> early morning hours, (about 2 AM), looking for something to do. On the
> second floor they found a fire extinguisher, and, wanting to impress our
> faculty that they had artistic talent, used it to paint the upstairs boys
> bath room. They then somehow unlocked a drum practice room, and wanting to
> find out how loud an amplifier could go, turned it on, full volume. In
> order to let everyone in the building know how that sounds, they found the
> main electrical panel, and turned off the power to the 2nd floor. When our
> maintenance people arrived at 5;30, and turned on the power, they heard
> the effects. 
> 
> Before they left, these talented students found their way onto the stage
> of the concert hall, where, to their delight, found a piano, with it's lid
> up. Had I known these talented students wanted to play, I would have left
> the action in the piano. But since I had to do some work on, I removed it.
> Well, these poor kids. When they couldn't play the piano, they did the
> next best thing. Using the tuning hammer I left on the piano, they wanted
> to see what hitting a string with the tool would sound like. What they
> discovered was that hitting a string with a tuning hammer, breaks the
> string, creating a wonderful sound, like a gun shot. Of course, these
> talented musicians couldn't just hear one gun shot, they wanted to hear
> more. So they proceeded to hit the strings 12 more times. But some of them
> must not have had good aim, because they missed the strings, and hit about
> 10 dampers instead, and 2 tuning pins, braking two of them. Still not
> feeling satisfied, the broke the upstop ra! ! ! il in 4. And I guess since
> they had painted the bathroom, they decided to use the empty cavity as a
> urinal. To add insult to injury, they took my tuning lever. These kids
> wouldn't have created all this damage if I had only left the action in the
> piano. That is why I take full responsibility. It was all my fault. 
> 
> The only good that came from this, is that the school is getting a brand
> new D, and one of the piano faculty is getting the repaired concert grand.
> 
> 
> Wim