The Piano Exploded

[Stephen Grattan]

Speaking of exploding pianos, a customer (Church) called last week to say that their piano was fine at a practice the night before but this morning it is buzzing and the notes do not sound right.  The piano is a 45" studio Currier about 25-30 years old.  I played a few notes and decided to remove the action.  The plate surface had separated  from its frame and split all the way across the piano.  The surface of the plate was deflecting the strings from the mid treble on up by 1/2 " towards the keyboard.  .It is now in my shop - waiting to de dismantled ( or for it ot compltely blow apart) to try to determine why it came apart - besides poor engineering.  They are purchasing a Walter studio to replace it.
 
Steve Grattan
Lost Chord Clinic



----- Original Message ----
From: "PIANOTECHNICIAN at aol.com" <PIANOTECHNICIAN at aol.com>
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: Thursday, February 8, 2007 1:06:04 PM
Subject: The Piano Exploded


I worked in a prestigious piano restoration center in New York a few years ago. A very wealthy man, who owned houses throughout the world, sent us his Steinway grand -- a monstrous piano which I believe was from the 1870's --  that he'd won at an auction. The piano's plate was cracked, and we gave him the estimate of several thousand dollars to manufacture a matching plate. He refused, and could not be convinced otherwise. So we had the next best thing done - -repair the crack. After we totally restored the instrument and I gave it the final tuning, I sat down to play, and it sounded good. A few minutes later while chatting with some co-workers, we hear a bit of an explosion come from the piano. The moral of the story: THERE'S A TIME AND PLACE TO TRY TO SAVE $$$, AND A TIME AND PLACE WHERE YOU HAVE TO SPEND THE $$$. I hope the customer learned the lesson well.
 
Jesse Gitnik    NYC
Tech. since 1980
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