<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">   Back in March, Avery Todd forwarded a message from concert pianist Fred Moyer about a school on the island of Vinalhaven, ME that was looking for a restored B or D for their summer concert series. It turned out that I had tuned for Fred a couple of years back and happened to have two re-manufactured B's more or less ready to go, so I emailed him and we made arrangements to have him stop in for a look. He had already looked at several pianos, and was planning on seeing two more B's and a D in my area that same day. My most recently completed B was a 1906 ebony with a really sweet sound and an action to die for, with low touchwieghts and very low frontweights, thanks largely to techniques I learned at the wonderful two day class taught by Bob Marinelli, Chris Solliday and Dave Stanwood at Rochester last summer. Fred sat down and was immediately in heaven, saying that there was just no point in looking any further. The piano just "played iteself". He returned a couple of weeks later with Rona Hokanson, in whose husband Leonard's honor the new hall on Vinalhaven is named. Rona also loved the piano, but we all had some concerns about its ability to project and fill a large hall, considering that we were hearing it in a tiny, dead room with very low acoustic tile ceilings and wall to wall carpet. So they began to look more closely at my other B, a 1910 in a mahogany case and a much more powerful tone. It also had a very nice action, utilizing the Tokiwa "miracle whips".  At one point Rona asked what I'd be willing to do if they bought one of the pianos and moved it out to the island only to find that as good as it sounded in my house it just wouldn't cut it in a 400 seat hall. Without really thinking, I blurted out that we'd be willing to move both pianos up to Maine, tune & voice them for the hall, and let them make their selection on site. If they decided that neither was suitable, then they would be responsible for the cost of the move, otherwise it would be on me. At that point, their jaws just dropped - "You'd be willing to do that?!" they asked. I figured that I had nothing to lose. So last Friday we packed up the pianos in a U-haul and drove 200 miles up the coast of Maine to Rockland to catch the ferry. Since we were unable to reserve a place on board, the islanders had arranged to have a local firewood supplier wait in line in his truck all morning to hold our place. We arrived at Vinalhaven in the late afternoon, set up and tuned the pianos and got our first hearing. The ebony piano was even more beautiful, but definitely lacking in projection in the large hall, whereas the Mahogany needed to be voiced back somewhat. After some discussion with my long time moving and sometimes shop partner and great technician and friend Bill Faller, we decided against doing anything dramatic until after Fred arrived the next day. When he did, and after going back and forth for a few minutes with some Mozart and Rachmaninoff, he still liked the ebony piano, but knew it needed more. So with Fred, Rona, and several other Fox Islands Concerts board members as an audience, Bill got out the needles on the Mahogany piano while I broke out the acetone/keytop mix for the ebony, and we went at it. It took surprising little time, and it was like a great performance with our audience listening as they would have at a concert. We took a lunch break while the juice dried on the hammers, and then Fred joined us on stage, he playing, a bit, us needling a bit, and the audience asking to hear one piano and then the other. Schubert, Chopin, Gershwin, more Rachmaninoff and Mozart all came and went. Fred joined the audience while I played some Schumann and Chopin. Gradually we brought the two pianos closer and closer, and the choice became more and more difficult, but finally  it was decided, and Fred said, "Mark, I'm afraid you've lost your ebony piano!" So thanks, Avery, Bob, Chris, David, Bill, Fred, Rona, Norah and all the other wonderful people of Vinalhaven who made our stay there and the whole experience absolutely magical. Thanks for giving my baby a wonderful new home, and I will see you on August 17th for the Inaugural Concert! Mark Dierauf NH Pianos Concord, NH The 1910 Mahogany and 1906 ebony B's. Notice how much shorter the Victorian B appears. It must be that double half-round molding around the rim, because they are exactly the same length. <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ptg.org/files/2007/06/1.jpg">http://www.ptg.org/files/2007/06/1.jpg</a> Here I am with the final selection <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ptg.org/files/2007/06/2.jpg">http://www.ptg.org/files/2007/06/2.jpg</a> And here's Fred (the third piano at the end of the line is their old 6'4" A) <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ptg.org/files/2007/06/3.jpg">http://www.ptg.org/files/2007/06/3.jpg</a> </body> </html>