Greetings, I just wanted to share a first for me. I've heard many on the list talk of birdcage actions, overdampers, etc. but I've never experienced one... that is, until tonight. I had an evening appointment with a very important client. She's very connected with the local music community and a recommendation from her can go a long way towards enhancing my career. So, I already felt a slight modicum of pressure. Anyway, I walk in and I find a beautiful black upright. It's away from the windows and not under any vents. It looks well taken care of. We chat and I find out this piano used to belong to a famous opera singer from Germany. It was purchased by her grandmother and eventually shipped from Germany over to the US and finally ends up where I find it... So, I open the top lid, check the serial number (75256) and find out it was built in 1908. When I removed the front panel, I'm sure I was screaming internally. I'd just laid eyes on what I knew had to be the notorious birdcage. It looked like prison bars to me. :-) I won't go into too many details, but the piano tuned beautifully, other than a few loose tuning pins that are just barely holding on at the moment. We agreed to address these later... When I started tuning, it was less than 3 cents off and it hadn't been tuned in about a year. I have a question... How the heck do you guys mute this thing? Other than what I ended up doing which was to use a single mute and work my way up (from the tenor break), and then down (below the break). It seems like it was designed to make it as hard as possible to reach anything other than the tuning pin. Any tips or techniques will be welcomed with open arms. Well, the end result was that she ended up happy, the piano sounded beautiful, and I needed a drink. :-) Here's a couple of photos of the Bluthner. It was really in excellent condition. Ivory keys were all intact, too. Regards, Rob McCall Murrieta, CA -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Bluthner.jpg Type: image/jpg Size: 64404 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090909/a76833fa/attachment-0002.jpg> -------------- next part -------------- -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Bluthner 2.jpg Type: image/jpg Size: 61648 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090909/a76833fa/attachment-0003.jpg>
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