List, A few months back, when I was "tunethepno" instead of "pianofxrguy," I wrote in about a grand piano that had been vandalized in a little church in the countryside. I received much good advice from the list and I thank you all for that. The piano had been flipped upside down and slammed in to the front pew. When it was set back up we discovered that the vandals had reached inside and tried to rip out the dampers. They were not successful in pulling any out (maybe that's when they got mad enough to turn it over) but they had twisted up a lot of the damper wires in the process. There were no cracks in the plate, soundboard, or action frame. The worst of the damage was to the case. The refinisher/restorer that I hired did a remarkable job, and the piano is looking better than it has in years. He did some creative repair to the music rack that saved us from having to try to replace it with a close match. If you knew where the gouges were on the lid and body you can find evidence of a couple of them, but I don't think you would find them without knowing the situation. Several of you said the dampers would be the hardest part. They were. But everything came out all right. New damper felt, new keytops, action regulation and major tuning. The action feels a little less responsive than it should, though and the sustain is not as long as it should be. I bedded the action frame and checked the crown and they seem OK. The action regs are within normal parameters. I am open to any suggestions on what to look for. The pianist says it "just doesn't play the same" and it doesn't "sustain like it did." I am going down next week to recheck everything and maybe do some more aggressive voicing. As a matter of interest, they caught the guys 90 miles up the road for other crimes and found out that they were the ones that did this damage kind of by accident. These two guys were breaking into those little brick buildings at the base of radio, microwave and cellular transmission towers and loading up on the high tech electronics. They were apparently a little high on something and thought they might find something interesting in a little church along the highway. The drugs were the only apparent explanation of the violence to the piano and organ after stealing the sound system. Anyway, thanks for previous advice and for any forthcoming, John Stroup South Bend, Ind.
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC