Wanna Guess? NPR (Not Politically Related)

[Tom Cole]

The piano was stored upside-down in a basement which flooded?

Tom Cole

Mitch Ruth wrote:
> 
> Hey List,
> 
> I had an interesting call on Saturday and I wanted to see if you wanted to
> have a little fun with it.
> 
> I went out into the hinterlands (not far for me)to a home with an Everett
> spinet sized piano.  I turned out to be an early 50's model with a bent-key
> direct blow action (I don't know the proper tech term for it.) It was given
> to this family by "a friend" so that the little girl there might learn to
> play.
> 
> Of course this piano was about 130 cents flat.  However I am a hearty soul,
> who reads his pianotech posts, and will tackle this in stride. Upon
> inspection I discovered that the upper portion of the strings were ENCASED
> in rust (not just a little corrosion, rust)and the bass windings were black.
>   The plate was a blackish color and the felt was a little gray.  Puzzled I
> looked behind the kick plate and discovered everything normal for this
> piano...no rust, windings,plate, and bridges looked good.  The lid on the
> piano was a little scarred but not badly.  there was a small place on the
> side of the piano that was blistered.
> 
> I determined that the piano would be impossible to tune without a
> restringing and I could not recommend restringing this instrument.  After a
> discussion with the parents, I found they could not afford a better
> instrument at this time, so I fixed a few ringing dampers so the piano could
> at least make noise.  While I was doing that, I came up with what I thought
> was what happened to this piano that created the problem.
> I thought it might be fun to see if you can guess what happened to it.  I
> don't know for sure but I think I've got it down.
> 
> Now "It's an Everett" is not an acceptable answer for the purposes of my
> game.  The only prize with be the satisfaction of a job well done and the
> joy of participating in a string that does not include American politics (By
> the way I hear we are going to change our national motto to "Just Keep
> Counting").
> 
> Have at it
> 
> Mitch Ruth
> DeMossville, KY
> 
> "Hold on to your dreams, unless you dream of porcupines..."
> 
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