Wanna Guess? NPR (Not Politically Related)

[Farrell]

How about a water leak from the ceiling? - And the water evaporated by the
time it made it half-way down the piano? I think the upside-down suggestion
is best. Or maybe the leak occurred during a reversal of the earth's
magnetic field, thus briefly suspending gravity?

Terry Farrell
Piano Tuning & Service
Tampa, Florida
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Cole" <tcole@cruzio.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, November 13, 2000 11:59 AM
Subject: Re: Wanna Guess? NPR (Not Politically Related)


> The piano was stored upside-down in a basement which flooded?
>
> Tom Cole
>
> Mitch Ruth wrote:
> >
> > Hey List,
> >
> > I had an interesting call on Saturday and I wanted to see if you wanted
to
> > have a little fun with it.
> >
> > I went out into the hinterlands (not far for me)to a home with an
Everett
> > spinet sized piano.  I turned out to be an early 50's model with a
bent-key
> > direct blow action (I don't know the proper tech term for it.) It was
given
> > to this family by "a friend" so that the little girl there might learn
to
> > play.
> >
> > Of course this piano was about 130 cents flat.  However I am a hearty
soul,
> > who reads his pianotech posts, and will tackle this in stride. Upon
> > inspection I discovered that the upper portion of the strings were
ENCASED
> > in rust (not just a little corrosion, rust)and the bass windings were
black.
> >   The plate was a blackish color and the felt was a little gray.
Puzzled I
> > looked behind the kick plate and discovered everything normal for this
> > piano...no rust, windings,plate, and bridges looked good.  The lid on
the
> > piano was a little scarred but not badly.  there was a small place on
the
> > side of the piano that was blistered.
> >
> > I determined that the piano would be impossible to tune without a
> > restringing and I could not recommend restringing this instrument.
After a
> > discussion with the parents, I found they could not afford a better
> > instrument at this time, so I fixed a few ringing dampers so the piano
could
> > at least make noise.  While I was doing that, I came up with what I
thought
> > was what happened to this piano that created the problem.
> > I thought it might be fun to see if you can guess what happened to it.
I
> > don't know for sure but I think I've got it down.
> >
> > Now "It's an Everett" is not an acceptable answer for the purposes of my
> > game.  The only prize with be the satisfaction of a job well done and
the
> > joy of participating in a string that does not include American politics
(By
> > the way I hear we are going to change our national motto to "Just Keep
> > Counting").
> >
> > Have at it
> >
> > Mitch Ruth
> > DeMossville, KY
> >
> > "Hold on to your dreams, unless you dream of porcupines..."
> >
> >
_________________________________________________________________________
> > Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at
http://www.hotmail.com.
> >
> > Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
> > http://profiles.msn.com.
>