<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16674" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow"> It's always amusing or
mind-boggling to hear some of the things people believe, or think they
believe, about pianos. Even smart, educated people will sometimes
come out with the most absurd statements.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow"> I don't know how many
times people have told me their piano has a cast-iron soundboard, or
they'll point to the plate, even in a grand, and ask if that's the
soundboard. You'd think the word "board" would suggest wood, not
metal. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow"> And why they think a
vertical has to be moved out from the wall in order to be tuned, I still
don't know. I asked someone once, and they replied, "Well, you know, in
order to tune it." They've seen guitars and violins being tuned, but
somehow never imagine that a piano may have a similar arrangement of strings
wound around pins that you turn to raise or lower their pitch. Others
can't imagine why you'd have to open it up or lift the lid in order to tune
it. They obviously have no clue as to what tuning entails -- it's just a
mystery box to them, I guess. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow"> And of course they know for
sure that any time a piano is moved, even across the room, it has to be
re-tuned. They never question it. Same with the "outside wall"
myth, the jar of water in the bottom, and the </FONT><FONT
face="Arial Narrow">belief that it went out of tune because nobody's been
playing it, and now that it's been tuned and they're going to play it (even tho'
it just underwent a half-step pitch raise), it'll stay in tune better.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow"> Off the top of my head, I
can't think of any other household objects about which so many myths and
misbeliefs are maintained. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow"> --David Nereson,
RPT</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow"> </FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=cgpiano@suddenlink.net
href="mailto:cgpiano@suddenlink.net">Carman</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech Archives</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, June 29, 2008 1:20 AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Wives tales ... </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> One of my clients was a family whose old
grand piano desperately needed new strings. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>They informed me, with unswerving conviction,
that removing the old strings would cause the plate to explode.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Carman Gentile
RPT</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>