<!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 content="MSHTML 5.00.2614.3500" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT size=2>    Thanks to Conrad H. for a = most amusing list of stuff found in pianos.  I love the semi-collectable old = trolley tokens, bus tokens, gas rationing tokens or stamps, and amusement park = ride tokens or tickets that I've found.    Found an old tuning mute = with Tonk Bros. embossed on it.  [Does anybody know the origins of the = term "honky-tonk"?]  Also a temperament strip, still left in the = strings!  Stuff left by factory workers:  wood screws, bridge pins, hitch = pins, center pins, an occasional tuning pin or pin bushing, sawdust, = clipped-off tops of damper wires; once encountered a bass note where both strings of = the unison were "dead"  -- turned out the 2 strings of that note were = glued together by a dropped glob of glue; I flicked it off, tuned 'em up, and = they were OK.   Same piano (Kincaid) had non-sounding strings = because the damper felt was glued to the strings.</FONT></DIV> <DIV>    But one of the worst cases of sticking keys I = found was because the parakeet cage was too close to the piano and everytime he = ate or scratched around, birdseed and its shells would fall in between the keys = -- birdseed is about exactly the size of the spaces between keys.  = Major binding.</DIV> <DIV>     Once opened a bottom panel in the presence = of twin daughters to find a dead mouse.  One girl exclaimed, = "Eeeeewwww!!!!" and went running out of the room while her twin ran up and said, "Oooh, = lemme see!"</DIV> <DIV>      And one of the most = entertaining complaints of sticking keys (to me, that is -- the owner, however, was = horrified and grossed out) was finding under the fallboard and under the keys of a = spinet, and distributed all throughout the action, an entire bag of dogfood, = carried morsel by morsel into the piano by diligent mice, through the pedal = holes, since dogfood littered the entire bottom board also.  It literally looked = like somebody opened the lid and poured in a 10 lb. bag.  </DIV> <DIV>    Then last year the choir director at a high = school decided to use the 6 ft. Kawai as the snack and condiment table for an after-concert party, and he knocked a whole bottle of salsa down onto = the tuning pins, strings, dampers, action, keys, back rail cloth, and keybed.  = It dripped all down the damper wires -- everywhere.  Fortunately, it = scraped off fairly easily in some places after it dried and hardened, = coming off in large flakes.  But the smell was almost like puke, and it was quite = time-consuming to get it all off.   I'm sure the vinegar in it = didn't help the metal parts or chrome any.  </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>    One last one:  found an old = upright once that must've had a terrible soundboard rattle, or maybe they just = thought it was too loud, and to quiet it, they stuffed maybe 6 months worth of = daily newspapers between the strings and soundboard and between the board and = the backposts.  It just kept coming and coming.  I'd never seen = the likes.    Takes all kinds. . . .            =    --David Nereson, RPT, Denver</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV></BODY></HTML>