<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> James, I never saw the feature you mention, and I get fascinated with stuff like that.  Sounds unique. Have you ever attempted before to get such a poorly maintained piano in working condition?  It sounds like this one is dead and should have been buried long ago.  In any case, you can probably count on breaking additional strings and things in the process of tuning and repair.  Are you really sure you want to try to save this one?  I wouldn't, and sometime between when you start and finish there's a good chance you'll wish you wouldn't have, either. On the other hand, if you live in an area where pianos are hard to come by, then maybe.  When I spent a week in Guatemala City I was told they don't throw any pianos away, regardless of condition, because they are so expensive to replace. Those are my thoughts. Regards, Clyde Kim Stubblefield wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE><style></style> okay everybody on my piano technicians emailing list...here's one... a B. Shoninger upright #6215   (suffice it to say it is an early one, pierce is unclear). not in great shape..given to the client as they were leaving winnipeg posted to cfb comox (west coast canada).... no bridge cracks but missing treble hammers, cracked soundboard, lots of missing strings and bass strings spliced by reef knots (yo ho ho and a barrel of piano hammers,...this will be fun). however,  the top octave and a half have something interesting....a sostenuto like device operating off the middle pedal that kicks in an alternate set of wood hammers which strike a series of bells built in under the keybed to the far right.   the bells are like teacup saucers stacked largest to the left on the horizontal.  this is obviously not a retro-fit. a few of the wood mallets/hammers are broken...client has no money of course (they live where i do) but want to put it into playing shape. ANYBODY run into one of these before, have any ideas or thoughts? thanks james lithgow</blockquote> </body> </html>