update on an old situation

[Pianofxrguy@AOL.COM]

List,
    A few months back, when I was "tunethepno" instead of "pianofxrguy," I 
wrote in about a grand piano that had been vandalized in a little church in 
the countryside. I received  much good advice from the list and I thank you 
all for that.
    The piano had been flipped upside down and slammed in to the front pew. 
When it was set back up we discovered that the vandals had reached inside and 
tried to rip out the dampers. They were not successful in pulling any out 
(maybe that's when they got mad enough to turn it over) but they had twisted 
up a lot of the damper wires in the process. There were no cracks in the 
plate, soundboard, or action frame. The worst of the damage was to the case.
    The refinisher/restorer that I hired did a remarkable job, and the piano 
is looking better than it has in years. He did some creative repair to the 
music rack that saved us from having to try to replace it with a close match. 
If you knew where the gouges were on the lid and body you can find evidence 
of a couple of them, but I don't think you would find them without knowing 
the situation.
    Several of you said the dampers would be the hardest part. They were. But 
everything came out all right. New damper felt, new keytops, action 
regulation and major tuning. The action feels a little less responsive than 
it should, though and the sustain is not as long as it should be. I bedded 
the action frame and checked the crown and they seem OK. The action regs are 
within normal parameters. I am open to any suggestions on what to look for. 
The pianist says it "just doesn't play the same" and it doesn't "sustain like 
it did." I am going down next week to recheck everything and maybe do some 
more aggressive voicing.
    As a matter of interest, they caught the guys 90 miles up the road for 
other crimes and found out that they were the ones that did this damage kind 
of by accident. These two guys were breaking into those little brick 
buildings at the base of radio, microwave and cellular transmission towers 
and loading up on the high tech electronics. They were apparently a little 
high on something and thought they might find something interesting in a 
little church along the highway. The drugs were the only apparent explanation 
of the violence to the piano and organ after stealing the sound system.
    Anyway, thanks for previous advice and for any forthcoming,

        John Stroup
        South Bend, Ind.