Too late!  I had to fix it immediately for a performance the next day! Paul <table width=100%> <tr valign=top> <td width=40%>"Loren Buntemeyer" <lbuntemeyer@ku.edu> Sent by: caut-bounces@ptg.org 04/12/2008 12:35 PM <table border> <tr valign=top> <td bgcolor=white> <div align=center>Please respond to College and University Technicians <caut@ptg.org></div></table> <td width=59%> <table width=100%> <tr valign=top> <td> <div align=right>To</div> <td>"College and University Technicians" <caut@ptg.org> <tr valign=top> <td> <div align=right>cc</div> <td> <tr valign=top> <td> <div align=right>Subject</div> <td>Re: [CAUT] Unauthorized "prepared pianos"</table> <table> <tr valign=top> <td> <td></table> </table> Don't kill yourself repairing this piano before the next rehersal performance.  If the piano is out of commission, let it be known why! to all.  If you fix it immediately, it must have been just a minor adjustment needed for prepared piano.     You! wouldn't do that?   All good piano technicians gain reality and retire.     Loren ----- Original Message ----- From: <a href=mailto:pwilliams4@unlnotes.unl.edu>Paul T Williams</a> To: <a href=mailto:caut@ptg.org>caut@ptg.org</a> Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2008 10:26 AM Subject: [CAUT] Unauthorized "prepared pianos" Hi List, In the last two weeks, our best Steinway D has been damaged by unauthorized "prepared" piano use twice!  The first occurrence was three weeks ago during our "Clarifest Day" where a guest artist, without permission started banging on the right cheekblock and side of the rim with his fist.  He pounded so hard it knocked loose the cheek screw and was causing a clicking in the upper regesters.  I was called from home to come down to fix it, and fortunately it was indeed only the loose screw. The second time was this week; a student composer used a mallet and banged on the plate and severely bent up several bass damper heads AND strumming the strings with a wire brush.  The stage manager, the professor of composition, and I were not told this was going to take place and this student beleives he is going to demonstrate it again in the same hall and in our smaller recital room that also has a "D".   The assistant stage manager (in charge that evening) SHOULD have stopped the pre-performance rehersal and swapped out the Steinway for our semi- decent Yamaha C-3.   I'm not sure how to prevent the abuse of prepared pianos.  The faculty doesn't seem to care or think about it, except for the piano faculty, of course.   Do I have a right to prevent such use/abuse?  Could I actually step in and stop a performance?  Should I?  How do you all get faculty and students to get this in their fat heads that this behaviour is not OK? He could have cracked the plate!!! Concerned Paul T. Williams