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<DIV>In a message dated 12/12/03 10:22:29 AM Central Standard Time, atodd@UH=
.EDU writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue =
2px solid"><FONT size=3><FONT face=Arial>List,<BR><BR>Well, we finally g=
ot our new Maene Fortepiano from Belgium<BR>delivered yesterday. It looks fa=
ntastic and the harpsichord <BR>guy on the faculty loved it. "It has a reall=
y nice, clear <BR>bass" was one of the particular comments he made about it.=
<BR>It even arrived remarkably well in tune, considering where <BR>it came =
from!<BR><BR>Unbelievably though, it had no instruction/maintenance type of<=
BR>manual with it! We're going to see if we can get one from<BR>Belgium but =
if not, I'll order Margaret Hood's manual.<BR><BR>Just what I need. Somethin=
g else to work on! :-) But at least,<BR>it looks like it might be fun.<BR><B=
R>Avery <BR><BR><X-SIGSEP></FONT>
<P></X-SIGSEP><FONT face=Arial>______________________<BR>Avery Todd, RPT</=
FONT></P></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV>We have a Jacob Doll Forte. Last fall, at the beginning of the school y=
ear, I wanted to tune ti. But 2/3rds of the strings were broken. at first I =
thought the snapped because it got too hot in the room. But upon careful ins=
pection I found that the strings had rusted at eh dampers. The damper pads a=
re made of chamois. Apparently it soaked up a lot of moisture during the sum=
mer, which caused the strings to rust. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>So a word of caution. If you're not going to use the forte for a while,=
especially when it's hot and humid, remove the dampers. On mine it just lif=
ts off. I also tune every two weeks, just to keep it stable, even if it does=
n't get used. (Which is virtually never?) </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Wim</DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"=
>Willem Blees, RPT<BR>Piano tuner/technician<BR>School of Music<BR>Universit=
y of Alabama<BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>