Records in piano

[Mark Cramer]

There was an itinerant who initialled his(?) pianos with a jumbo marker on
the plate. It was nothing less than graffiti. He used a different color each
time, blue, red and green,.. maybe had to leave the profession once the
then-current palette was exhausted!?

Some clients would ask me to leave a record in the piano (a card or
something) and I may have on occasion, but was never able to turn it into a
habit.

There was one old duffer whose stamp appeared concentrated in an area an
hour north of here, though mysteriously, his home address was Nelson,
British Columbia. One summer while on vacation, I chose to track him down.
He was in his eighties, had changed address several times, and had retired
from piano work, what for him, seemed like a lifetime ago.

I enjoyed our brief but friendly visit and found that he had relatives in
Manitoba whom he visited every year, who in turn booked his 'services'
around the neighborhood. Mystery solved, and a rich, historical insight of
our trade, gained.

About 8 years ago, I invited Jamie Musselwhite (Winnipeg, brother of
John,RPT, Calgary) to make use of our spray-booth. He took a look at a
client's upright I was working on and said, "Wow, this is my Dad's
signature, and here is my grandfather's stamp." (Some of you may remember
Jamie and John's Dad, and know that he tuned for a number of the famous
touring pianists in his day.) Anyhow, I said "well you had better sign it
too."

The client had purchased the 80-something-year-old Mason & Risch only a year
prior, but mild smoke damage from a fire in a neighboring apartment found it
in our shop for cleaning and 'action-replacement.'

This year, while tuning it (it's become a favourite) I was (day-dreaming, as
always) reading the markings on the plate: "Musselwhite: Murray's Music,
Dauphin, Mb" and the year, etc.

And there, down in the "V" between tenor and bass, in pencil, in a
draftsmen's hand, still faintly visible, even after the smoke cleaning I was
quite surprised to see: Mark Cramer, 1983 (my very-first year in the trade)
and beneath that: 1984

"Guilty as charged!"  :>)

Mark Cramer,
Brandon University