<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2769" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: = Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=rol= e_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV> <DIV>Gordon,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I thought I'd share my Packard experience.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Back in my piano moving days a couple of decades ago, I was moving one = of these beasts.  It was quite heavy and rather unwieldy, to put it mildly.  I had no help that day, and it got away from me on the lift ga= te of the truck (in the up position).  It toppled 5 feet to the ground ont= o it's back.  In a very shaky, quite adrenalized state, I got it upright = and on the dolly again, and when it got to its destination, it played as though nothing at all had happened to it. Further examination revealed that nothing= did!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>They were strong, for sure.  Great playing pianos~</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Dave Stahl</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In a message dated 10/31/2005 7:48:38 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, lclgcnp@yahoo.com writes:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><= FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>   Had to smash up a 1920's Packard upright, today,<BR>= one of the best-playing, best sounding pianos I've<BR>ever seen. I felt bad about= it, but it was in the way<BR>and had terrible case and bridge damage due to some<BR>moron parking it beneath a dripping/spraying air<BR>conditioner.&n= bsp; Still, the sound was magnificent.<BR>    That it did not die in vain, I relate the<BR>following:<BR>    It had a heavy pressure = bar. The plate was almost<BR>like steel. Members that would have broken with a claw<BR>hammer on most pianos took 10 whacks with a  full<BR>sized sl= edge before they split ( Ugh! ) The back posts<BR>and blocks were all of 5, 3/4= " plys of mahogany and<BR>rock maple. The soundboard was 3/8" thick at the <BR>upper edge, and 5/16" thick at the lower edge, of<BR>wonderfully strai= ght, tight-grain spruce with about 40<BR>lines per inch. It had a  dozen r= ibs that were very<BR>stout: the largest being 1-1/4" wide and 7/8" thick.<BR>These also appeared to be radially cut, so the belly<BR>was very= solid, with both rib and compression<BR>crowning, as far as I could tell.<BR>    The treble bridge had a vertically laminated root<BR>and was doweled into the board every 4 inches.<BR>    Th= e bass bridge was stright, on a small shelf.<BR>    They keys were= very short, to minimalize inertia.<BR>The piano was very wide and 52" tall= , to allow shorter<BR>action parts for better response, while maintaining<BR>bo= ard size and string length.<BR>    Considering the amount of water t= hat obviously had<BR>sprayed on to it, most pianos would have been<BR>complete= ly destroyed. But this one sounded and played<BR>wonderfully, to my amazement= . <BR>   Peace,<BR>   G<BR><BR>P.S. Oh yes! It also said= "Founded 1871",  so my guess<BR>is that the Packard family learned it= 's stuff making<BR>pianos before it started making automobiles.<BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>