oddball piano

[Clyde Hollinger]

List:

I remember the feeling I got in my gut when I flew to Guatemala City to
service pianos last August and walked into a fine home to see an ornate
upright waiting for me with the name Mason & Hamlin on the fallboard. 
"Please, Lord, not here!"  Sure enough, an old screw stringer, my first
one, and I with only a handful of tools and parts.  In spite of evidence
of previously torn/replaced strings all over the place, I got out
without tearing any additional ones and breathed a sigh of relief!

Today I found a new animal which wasn't only an oddball but was also
previously serviced so poorly as to be laughable, and I'm not sure where
the one stops and the other starts!  Francis Bacon piano, I found the
number 300030 (but was it really the serial number?), spinet height. 
First thing I noticed was that half of keystick A1 was missing
lengthwise, ditto for C88.  Someone had put on new plastic keytops, and
apparently not knowing what to do with that half-key, just slapped
another blank on top, across the crack of A1-A#2, ditto for the top. 
Odd!

I lifted the lid and stood back in amazement.  The tuning pins were on a
horizontal plane on top.  The strings needed to make a 90-degree bend
away from me, most of them going through agraffes on the edge, to
terminate at the tuning pins.  Oh yes, a couple strings had torn many
years ago and not been replaced.  Keydip was about half normal, being
blocked up by little squares of cardboard in lieu of cardboard punchings
on the front rail pins, which made the piano feel terrible and function
likewise.  The action appeared to be a standard console action.

The family had just gotten the PSO a month or so ago.  I waffled between
trying to improve it a little or just condemn it, take a tiny fee and go
home.  I chose the former, but the latter would have been better, since
I discovered the pinblock had failed in the treble end and wouldn't hold
a pitch.  Nevertheless, they'll probably be happy I tried; they weren't
home when I finished.

Well, thanks for reading my ramblings.  What other freaks are lurking
out there, waiting to pounce on me when I least expect it?

Clyde Hollinger, RPT
Lititz, PA, USA