BIG FRONT

[Joe & Penny Goss]

Ron,
Please let me continue the rant well deserved.
I do not know the model,
but several pianos are designed so that it almost takes two persons to take
out or install the bottom board due to the bottom board being wider than the
leg to leg width. The worst was one that not only was very wide but also had
less than a 1/2 inch clearance between the top of the board and the bottom
of the key bed.  ARGH
And also those beauties where to take the action out requires removal of
many case or wood parts that make the fall board function correctly.
Joe Goss


----- Original Message -----
From: Ron Nossaman <RNossaman@KSCABLE.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, March 20, 2000 3:34 PM
Subject: BIG FRONT


> Now that (I trust) the subject line has focused your attention, I'd like
to
> do something a little unusual for list traffic of late. I have a comment
> about a piano. That's culture shock, I know, but piano techs are a
> resilient lot, so I suspect you'll be ok after a few deep breaths. If not,
> take a pill.
>
> I tuned a new Yamaha T 121 about a week ago and I'm still wondering about
> something. Are piano cases designed by moist palmed sticky fingered tree
> frog type new college graduates who were never required to lift a heavy
one
> piece slick polyester combination front/music desk/fallboard with no
> available handles out of a piano using only two dry, calloused, "working
> stiff" front paws? Have they ever lifted anything heavier than their
mouse?
> (don't say it) Whatever the official answer, I have evidence to the effect
> that they are, and that they haven't. The only way I could find to grip
> this monolithic front was to lift the full weight of it by one hand,
> grasping the center of the hinged fallboard lip, which flexed quite
> entertainingly during the process, and balancing it with the other hand at
> the top center of the front panel while I coaxed it out of the piano and
> levitated it to a safe landing spot. If they had even put a small block of
> wood at top center inside, like they were planning on installing a lock,
> but didn't, it would have given me something to hang on to. Sticky
fingered
> people have no idea how hard it is for dry fingered people to grip flat
> smooth panels. There's no traction! Especially when the thing weighs about
> thirty pounds. What's the average number of times one can lift this
> front/fallboard combination out by the fallboard lip until the lip parts
> company from the fallboard? I don't want to do this kind of research!
There
> are lots more interesting things to spend time on. I haven't gotten to it
> yet, but I plan on letting the dealer know that I intend to install (glue
> and screw) a block to the back center of the front as part of the service
> bond. It's a survival imperative.
>
> Now I've got to ask. Haven't we outgrown this kind of thing by now? Why
> not? Are we going to start seeing long hinges on the bass end of vertical
> lids next, with the pin inserted from the rear? Three foot screws,
> installed from the bottom and holding the lid on, might be an award
winning
> idea too if they can be made to fit a non standard driver. Service access
> to the instrument is a pretty basic and straightforward requirement. It
> shouldn't be all that difficult a concept to grasp, even for a college
> graduate that's been educated to the depth of his last brain cell. Who
> thinks this nonsense up? Why don't they spring for a service call by a
> working tech to come in and critique the plan before they crank up the
> production lines? Perhaps there's just some mindlessly simple and
> devilishly clever way of getting that bloody front off that I was just too
> brain dead to see. I'd actually like that, if someone would explain it to
> me, because it would mean that the case designer was actually thinking and
> the problem was with me... I'm trainable.
>
> Yamaha isn't, by far, the only problem in this area. Their piano, and this
> specific model, just happened to have been the last one that annoyed me
> enough to bring it up.
>
> End Rant.
>
> Ron N
>