Boy do I feel better - - - been working on an old Kronicly Bad and pulling by hair out. How good to hear about floppy keybeds, inaccesible parts, general fragility and weirdness - I thought I was just being stupid. My first warning was when I happily took the action back to the shop for some regulating, returned it a few months later after custom fitting some new, unfittable parts, and found the keybed had warped so far that the action wouldn't fit back in! (What goes out must go back in again -right? ). Really a mercy killing would have been the best thing at that point, but I couldn't bring myself to do it, owner can't pay for rebuilding, which would be a questionable expense for this instrument anyway. This was the beginning of innumerable visits to this piano - sort of a hospice arrangement I guess - and it seems that each time I get there, it has some new, weird contusion waiting for me. The latest and weirdest was as following - - - While doping a block one day, (I told you, rebuilding is out of the question), I began hearing creaks, groans, popping. Very scary. Then I heard what I was sure was a string breaking - I was just applying the goop, not tuning you understand. The lid was down with action on top, so I didn't get to check until next visit, when I discovered that the string, (bass), was intact, but had come free from the hitch pin! Weird! I don't know how it could have done this. Downbearing is present. I had to let the tension down a good bit to get it back on. I think this piano has some houdini like flexibility, and I'll arrive some day and find it completely doubled up on itself!. Any comments? Lee Brown
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