The Sound is Profound

[Larry Fisher]

Alas, yes, I too have heard THE SOUND my friend.  I was in the depths of
the dungeons of a local dealership castle on a grand piano that was a might
bit low.  I pitch raised it, and fine tuned it with hastened detail.
Whilst I was fastly approaching the final moments of the task, dreaming of
fresh eclairs, smoked salmon wrapped sweet pickles, concentrating deeply on
tuning and my next ambition for the day, there came this loud report from
the piano, unsettling and disturbing, unnerving and uncalled for.  I
reported back at the top of my lungs instantly without delay or thought,
and with all disregard of religion or deep personal beliefs of anybody
within earshot. I took a deep breath,  put my glass eye back in, retrieved
and dusted off my favorite set of teeth that had fallen prey to the dusty
shelves across the room, and found a suitable putty knife to clean out my
(well, you know....).  I inspected the plate closely.  At the junction of
the struts at the tenor break just in front of the tuning pin area there
was a faintly rough area in the paint.  Making a small scratch with my
knife I found the colours pink and black under the gold paint.  The pink
was Bondo and the black was the plate primer, undercoat, or sealer
(whatever it's called).  Someone had put a mask over the break with body
putty and painted over it.  Skillfully done, butt ugly it was.  Additional
searching found an additional crack at approxamately the same place in the
next strut north, in the middle of the treble section.  This crack anew was
most likely the reason for my ruined ambiance and attitude for the day.
This piano caused me to look at pianos that are a half step low with a
whole new eye (since the one I brought with me now looked like it was kinda
bloodshot, really made people leave me alone eh??).  From that time
forward, I started telling people about the possibility of plate breakage
with every pitch raise.  The reason the piano was a half step low was
because of the broken plate.  It broke again whilst being tuned, BY ME!!
The dealer sold it as furniture, a true PSO,  to someone in a town far far
away for $500.  The story goes, "every career tuner experiences at least
one broken plate.  The odds are against experiencing any more than that".
I don't wish this experience on anyone but someone who tunes steam caliopes
daily.  They could handle THE SOUND.

Lar


                                    Larry Fisher RPT
   specialist in players, retrofits, and other complicated stuff
      phone 360-256-2999 or email larryf@pacifier.com
         http://www.pacifier.com/~larryf/ (revised 10/96)
           Beau Dahnker pianos work best under water