I have heard _the sound_& it was bad

[pianoman]

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> From: Kent Swafford <kswafford@earthlink.net>
> To: pianotech list <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Subject: I have heard _the sound_
> Date: Monday, August 11, 1997 3:51 PM
> 
> About 10 months ago I tuned a Julius Bach spinet approximately 25 years 
> old; the tuning was uneventful except that I had to shim one tuning pin 
> before the one pin would hold.  I was called to tune the piano again this

> morning.  The piano had been moved from its position of last year to a 
> new position in the same room, the owner saying he was hoping that the 
> piano would stay in tune better in its new position.  I found the bass 
> and treble sections to be at pitch; the mid-range was noticeably flat 
> making the piano sound poor.  I did one rough-tuning pass, during which 
> the piano seemed to hold.  I had noticed during the first pass that the 
> second unison on the tenor bridge (C#3?) was unusually flat.  During the 
> second pass the C#3 seemed to hold, but as I tuned up into octave 4, I 
> heard _the sound_.  The customer was in the back yard outside the house 
> and claimed to have heard _the sound_ from there.  One of the strings of 
> C#3 had "broken" and when I investigated, I found a break in the plate 
> below the tenor end of the long bridge.  The break went through a hitch 
> pin hole, releasing the hitch pin and one string of C#3.  I suspect that 
> had I investigated when I originally found C#3 quite flat, I would have 
> found a crack in the plate.  But because the tuning pin that I had 
> shimmed was in the unison a half-step above, I thought nothing of finding

> flat notes in the area.  I'm not sure what I would have done, had I found

> a crack.  Since the piano is not valuable and would not be worth any 
> substantial repair work, perhaps I would have been asked to continue the 
> tuning and hope for the best.
> 
> May you never hear _the sound_.
> 
> Kent Swafford
Dear Kent,
I too heard the sound some 30 ears ago tuning an Estey console be prepared
for next day delivery at Aeolian Co. Of Mo.  The case wound up being
framework and trim in my downstairs bathroom.  Thankfully, I have not heard
the sound since.  May this be your last time!
James Grebe
 RPT from St. Louis
pianoman@inlink.com