<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type> <META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 9.00.8112.16443"> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV> <P>Yesterday I answered an emergency call to a Music Festival to look at their C7 which "had a rattle and a couple of loose screws out of the lid". I checked the hinge pins to be sure no one had removed them and started to lift the lid. Turns out that all fifteen screws in the lid were laying on the soundboard and had stripped out of the lid. This is one of my favorite pianos to service and I could have cried. Fortunately, my tuner/tech wife  was with me and we got it off the piano, turned it over and proceeded to plug the holes with leather and glue as a temporary fix as the piano section of the Festival needs it for Monday. The lid will go back to the dealer for plugging of the stripped screw holes and filling and buffing of the scratches when it is out of use in a couple of weeks. This is going to be an expensive mishap. </P> <P>Any theories on how this happened? No one in the church were this piano is stored seems to know anything about it. (The piano is owned by the Festival, but kept at the church.) If the lid fell off high stick would it have enough momentum to jar all those screws loose? This is what I think occurred. If somehow an idiot managed to lift it beyond 90 degrees, wouldn't the lid plummet to the floor? I would appreciate any ideas as this has everyone baffled.</P> <P>I have checked the piano for other damage that might result from a falling lid, but the plate is fine and the tuning was pretty much where I left it two weeks earlier.  </P> <P>By the way, I have lurked on this List for years and learned much from it.  I always enjoy reading the correspondence via the Archives each morning before heading out to work.</P> <P>Brian Johnston</P> <P> </P></DIV></BODY></HTML>