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<DIV> A friend who works at a hotel found a 5'1" =
Hamilton
grand in the dumpster, half-buried with drywall debris from a remodeling =
job in
the hotel. Apparently there was a fire in the lounge where =
the
piano was and though the piano didn't actually burn, the fire department =
came in
and doused the room with whatever they use (foam, water ...). They =
must've
figured the piano was a loss and dumped it, but I went to look at it =
(first time
I ever appraised a piano in a dumpster) and it was basically intact --
just extremely dirty with soot and sludge. No cracks in the
soundboard, no burnt wood -- the fire must've been in another part of =
the
room.</DIV>
<DIV> Anyway, after digging through piles of other =
hotel
garbage to find the pedal lyre and the legs, we had it hauled to =
where we
could work on it and attacked it with vacuum cleaner, brushes, rags, and =
then
did a Dremel-thon all over the strings, hitch pins, tuning pins, bridge =
pins,
etc. to get rid of what was mostly recent surface rust from the
foam. Either high heat or fire extinguishing chemicals =
made some
felt pads in the trapwork turn to a material resembling Bakelite. =
And I
was able to get 1 to 1 1/2 turns out of some of the plate screws when I
tightened them. (Maybe they hadn't been tightened since it was
built). But the action was in amazingly good condition and still
worked. The ivory keytops survived; plastic ones probably =
would've
melted or warped or shriveled. </DIV>
<DIV> Really didn't have much hope for the thing, but =
didn't
want to throw away a piano without seeing if it could be salvaged, =
partly as a
favor to starving-artist-type jazz musicians who can't even afford a =
used
spinet.</DIV>
<DIV> After several hours' preparatory work, polishing =
damper
wires and easing their holes, I raised pitch a half-step and only two =
plain-wire
strings broke. Pin torque was fine. Bass strings were pretty =
dead,
though [why is it that liquids make bass strings go dead?], and 6 =
or 7 of
them broke, all in the upper bass. Otherwise, it sounded fairly =
decent,
considering its ordeal, and after restringing the bass, it'll be a =
workable
piano and have a new life.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> Also heard at a chapter meeting of a client who =
found an
old upright at a garage sale, bought it, took it home, removed the =
action, and
hosed it down in the backyard with, yes, water, not air. It dried =
out
eventually, then he called a tuner. The thing still worked, but =
with very
loose action centers. Only a few hammer felts separated from =
the
mouldings (the guy tried not to get too much water on =
'em). How
all the other felts stayed glued on is beyond me. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> Then there was a brand new Yamaha import console =
that
fell backwards off a truck, landed face first on a very steep street, =
hit the
cheek blocks and front edge of the lid first, then bounced/rolled over =
onto its
back, but only suffered a large gouges in the top lid, re-shaped cheek =
blocks,
and a few scuffs here and there. Everything else was intact except =
the
action got forced toward the strings and needed some unbending of
the action rest bolts and some damper regulation. Been tuning =
it for
years now and it seems fine.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> Surely there was at least one large grand
piano on the Titanic. I wonder if anyone . . . . nahhh!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> --David Nereson, RPT, Denver</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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