Sealed pianos

[Warren Fisher]

BOYINGTONR@aol.com wrote:
>
> I approahed a Yamaha/Story & Clark grand built circa 1972 with an action that
> was seemingly unremovable,

I remember an old accrosonic that resembled an antique secretary desk
that had an action problem that I needed to fix.  It had two small screw
on top of the horizontal wood panel that covered the backs of the key
and stickers.  After removing these I tried to lift out the panel and
nothing budged!  I looked every where for more screws (under rubber
buttons, on the sides of the key blocks) and finally looked under the
keybed (shoulda looked there first, I know!), but the screws I saw
didn't seem to be in the right position to be holding the cheekblocks.
Then I realized the pattern was wrong!  There were four like this.
0             0     0         0    A normal spread would have been:
0             0               0    Number three was seven inches long
and when removed, allowed every thing down to the keys, including the
cheekblocks to be lifted out as one unit!

A few minutes later the ownner came into the room and her jaw dropped in
astonishment. She said, "How did you do that?  None of the other tuners
were able to get it open!"  Needless to say, I felt pretty good about
that!  Of course, I serviced the piano about 18 months later and had
completely forgotten about the problem by then!

"Experience is the best teacher.  It allows you realize you've made that
mistake before!"

Warren



--
Warren D. Fisher
fish@communique.net
Registered Piano Technician
Piano Technicians Guild
New Orleans Chapter 701