Kahane piano breakdown

[Bill Ballard]

At 11:12 PM -0400 5/28/01, BUNKYPIANO@AOL.COM wrote:
>Assuming that no glue was used, the only quick solution would have been to
>move a whippin....i think that probably the repetition spring being out of
>place would have been a possible scenerio as well....and would have disabled
>that note...What's the point here?

I love you guys, all of you. Like the old riddle, how many piano 
technicians does it take to change a light bulb? Actually there's 
another part on the jack which can fracture: the point where the 
spring end enters the back of the jack with the two circle margins of 
wood (viewed from the side) left over from drilling that 3/16" hole 
which creates the space for the spring end to rest in. But that break 
is much rarer.

At 5:48 PM -0400 5/28/01, Billbrpt@AOL.COM wrote:
>I too, have noticed what concerns you:  when
>I have been a direct witness to an incident or have direct knowledge about
>something I have read or heard about in the media, the story always gets
>twisted with a disturbing amount of inaccuracy.

A lie makes it halfway around the world before the truth can get its 
boots on. Actually all it takes is one run through a spell-checker to 
change "key-stroking" to "key-striking". But more likely, the writer, 
Nedra Rhone, probably hurriedly copied a good technical description 
by Mr. Alexander, verbatim, either back stage at the end of the 
concert, or in a phone call later the next morning. That next day, 
she probably looked at it and said, "I can't figure this out, it's 
too long, I can fix this". Been there, had that written about me.

I get to play puzzle games in situations like this, starting with 
what the non-technically qualified writer wrote and trying to figure 
out exactly what portion of that might have come from a bonefide 
technical description. There's alot of this kind of game to be had in 
the new book, "The Piano Shop on the Left Bank", by Carhart.

As far as Mr. Alexander, if I were him, I'd prefer to be left alone. 
At least he didn't have a rep spring pop out of its slot, as happened 
to me once in the first minutes of a concert. "Mr. Ballard just 
finished completely rebuilding this piano", the director of the music 
series announced loudly from the stage.

Mr. Bill


"A jester unemployed is nobody's fool."
     ...........Danny Kaye, in "The Court Jester"
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