Sealed pianos

[Les Smith]

Hi, Wally.

There's nothing like traveling a half hour or forty mintues from home
to tune a piano, walking in and finding that you can't open the top to
tune it! Once it happens, you'll ALWAYS carry a suitable allen wrench in
your tuning kit. Some tuners don't like being surprised by those hex-hole
screws, and rather than leave the piano untuned, resort to prying the tops
off with large screwdrives or small pry bars. Carrying an allen wrench is
really easier, especially if the customer is watching!

Actually it's  rather odd that you would have found such a piano in a cus-
tomers home. For decades, Everette's were very aggressively marketed into
school systems all over the country. Those pianos destined for such an in-
stitutional setting were equipped hex-hole-screw-fastened brackets to pre-
vent nine-year old, piano-technician wannabes, from discovering how many
hammer heads they could break off their shanks in the thirty seconds the
teacher was out of the room. So the brackets weren't just put there to
try to drive piano technicians crazy. Although sometimes it seems that
way. Those pianos equipped with those special brackets frequently also
were equipped with key-cover locks as well. Nothing is more frustrating
than walking in on those pianos without an appropriate allen wrench for
the hex-hole screws and then finding that the key-cover has been locked,
too, and no one can find the key! That means that you're going to have to
use you heavy-duty pry-bar TWICE! Never leave home without it! :) Ever-
ette pianos destined for non-institutional settings were equipped with a
normal hinged lid that merely folded back for access. But you never know
for sure. So carry that allen wrench in your tuning kit. Or at least a
strong pry-bar.

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net



On Fri, 7 Mar 1997, wtscherer wrote:

> Hi everybody,
>
> I was just called on to tune an Everett studio yesterday. When I started to
> open the piano, it wouldn't. After a couple of minutes of tugging, prying,
> and shining my flashlight, I finally noticed that the top was fastened on
> by two brackets with hex-hole screws. (The back was covered with a cloth.)
> Unfortunately I didn't bring my Allen wrenches. Fortunately the owner found
> some. Once the screws were removed, the top could be slid back and removed,
> then the front panel/music rack unscrewed and removed.
>
> My questions are these: Is this common to all Everett studio pianos? Are
> there other piano brands that have uncommon fastenings and therefore
> require uncommon tools for opening?
>
> Wally Scherer
> Norfolk, VA
>