Another piano handyman

[Les Smith]

On Tue, 14 Oct 1997, Tom Cole wrote:

> I got a call from a man, an engineer, who bought an old upright piano
> which was way below pitch. He didn't care that it was painted green but
> wanted it tuned to standard pitch. While setting the temperament, I
> broke 4 strings and, after informing the owner of how the bill was
> beginning to mount up, we decided to go with tuning it a half step low
> after all.
> 
> He called me again several months later wanting it retuned. I returned
> to find that he had shifted the keyframe to the right sufficient to
> transpose everything up a half step. He even drilled the back end of the
> last key of each section to receive a heavy guage wire which was bent to
> the right to actuate the first sticker of the next section.
> 
> After I tuned it and put the case parts back on, you couldn't tell that
> it was "re-engineered" (as long as you didn't play A0 or C88).
> 
> Tom

Tom, List:

I guess my mind must be going because I can't remember the name of the
piano, offhand, but over the years I've tuned at least a couple of old
uprights which had this "transposing" feature built in. I suppose it
was meant as a facilitation in accompaning singers when the pianist
was unable to transpose a piece at sight, yet needed to change the pitch
of a piece either up or down to accomodate the range of a singer. 

The great thing about the mind being the SECOND thing to go is that
that way you keep forgetting what the first thing is!

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net