Is that plate broken?

[Ken Hale]

Hi,

On the way to a concert an old 6' Steinway grand had an accident. It
broke loose from the strap which was holding it up against the wall
inside a small moving van.:-{ It seems that it landed on it's top,
in the middle of the van floor, slightly protected by a few moving
blankets.

There is a visible crack on the lid's treble side, the fallboard broke
loose from the bass cheekblock hinge, cracking along it's length
(about a foot). Some other case damage and a little action damage
inside may be related to the fall.

The plate and soundboard look OK. It is easy to see cracks in the
soundboard, if present. There are no visible, to my eye, cracks in the
plate.

The owners are concerned about the plate having fine cracks that might
not show up to the eye. It seems like a valid concern to me.

My question is how would one go about making sure that there are no
fine cracks? One could be on the underside and not cause problems
until one late night when the wood is creaking or I am sitting there
lost, in listening to those beautiful intervals and shimmering beats.

I actually can not think of any way to be 100% sure, besides 
destringing and maybe taking it to the auto repair place for one of
those "what-da-ya-call-its" where they test for cracks in engine
blocks. There is insurance that would probably cover it, but is it
really necessary?

I would appreciate hearing anyone else's experience with these kinds
of situations.

Thank you,



Ken Hale, RPT
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PianoDB, PianoDB95, PianoDB97

Manage your Piano Service Business
Integrates with MS Office

Your Spell, a Text Editor/Spell Checker

D C AL CODA
http://www.dcalcoda.com/ kenhale@dcalcoda.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~