<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 5.00.2314.1000" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV>It never ceases to amaze me how disrespectful musicians are of pianos. The walls of our recital halls are covered with black marks from the pianos being crammed against them. Scratch marks appear on the lids hours after delivery. These are from the little metal feet on the bottom of instrument cases. The faculty doing lectures in the hall use the pianos for desks and put their briefcases (with the little metal feet) and other things on top of the piano. After a while, the instruments get a patina of abuse and you get out the magic marker and quit worrying about it. I try to get the kids to visualize the piano as a brand new Porsche Carrerra their daddy just bought and think about what would happen if they put their instrument case (with the little metal feet) on top of the paint-job....</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Eric Wolfley, RPT Head Piano Technician Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV align=left class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr>-----Original Message----- From: Wimblees@aol.com [mailto:Wimblees@aol.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2002 6:01 PM To: caut@ptg.org Subject: new piano scratched </DIV>The university got a new B 2 weeks ago, (a gift from an Alumni), for the recital hall, and in just a couple of days, someone has put some major scratches on the top. Although I was expecting the piano to take some abuse, I was disappointed in how soon it got damaged. The recital hall gets used about 4 periods a day for classes, and 4 hours a day for rehearsals, recitals, lessons, etc. We are going to try to keep the room locked, but most of the time it is open. The chair doesn't want to restrict the use of the piano. Although there is a light weight cover on it, and I have ordered a heavy duty cover, some of the piano faculty want to keep the piano under lock and key. What are some of you doing to keep new or newer pianos in good condition, not so much action wise, but appearance wise? Wim Univ. of Alabama </BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>