Ankle deep for a week?

[Susan Kline]

At 10:14 PM 8/21/98 EDT, Wim wrote:
>
>In a message dated 98-08-20 20:29:34 EDT, you write:
>
><< Yamaha P2 #686070
> 
> Inspection date: Thursday August 20, 1998
> 
> History (recent):
> 
> Serviced May 5, 1997 piano was in good condition.
> 
> Current conditions:
> 
> Piano is 26 cents over pitch, soundboard has cracked, rust starting on
> strings, wooden parts warped.
> 
> Recommendations:
> 
> Replace piano.
> 
> 
> Regards, Don
>
>
>Maybe Susan will take it.
> 
>Wim
>

Dear Wim, Don ---

Maybe water's wetter in Canada? Maybe it was salt water? <grin>

My pianos were seen after they had dried out. They had no warped parts.
Their soundboards were as good (or as bad) as they had ever been. There was
some rust on the bottom board screws, but none to speak of on the string
tails, even though some had been under water. No strings have broken. The
regulation was perfect, except that the right pedal on one piano needed
adjusting. Neither piano was sharp. One that had sat in the sun during the
construction was flat, which was unusual for it. (These pianos get tuned
twice a year, and hardly vary at all.) Two casters needed some lubrication
and a few screws needed tightening. This level of change just doesn't
justify replacement, in my opinion. (Not that I wouldn't like to replace
ALL their Kimball consoles!) One of the bottom boards (the George Steck)
showed a minor crack at a seam, but the pedals were quiet. I told them that
if the crack opened and the pedals started making noise, I'd have to take
the board home and repair it, but I thought they should ignore the damage
and count themselves lucky.

One was a Kimball console, one was an Aeolian console. Maybe junk is
indestructible?

I will gladly tell you in five or six years if anything changes, but I
would be _very_ surprised if anything did.

If Don lived a few miles from me, I'd wait until his "totaled" P2 dried out
completely, and then might well make an offer on it, depending on how rusty
the strings were and whether the "warped action parts" still were warped.
I'd take a good hard look at the bottom of the backposts, too, to see if
the posts and spacer blocks were loose. (They weren't on my two pianos.)
Where was it stored after the water incident? It seems strange that action
parts a couple feet above the water would warp from a few days of high
humidity. (Was the water boiling, or what?) I would think that Yamaha parts
would be well-seasoned and unlikely to bend from a little humidity. 

Susan 


Susan Kline
P.O. Box 1651
Philomath, OR 97370
skline@proaxis.com