oddities puzzler

[Farrell]

Maybe this is another reason to not use WD-40 on the strings! Applied too
much and it slipped right out? (just kidding) I don't have a clue what
happened. Maybe the last stringer couldn't figure out where it was supposed
to go, but did not want to remove it because he/she knew it went somewhere
there.

I service a Bush & Lane "Upright Grand". Yea, sure, I thought the first time
I saw it. But the plate is four sectioned, with the top two having real capo
bars, and the other two having agraffes. And upon looking at the back, low
and behold, was a full laminated bent rim on the two sides and bottom within
the square outer case. Truly was a grand that was upright - but, of course,
the beast did have a seemingly standard upright action. A real pain getting
mutes in around the capo bars also - the hammer go right up to them!

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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Nossaman" <RNossaman@KSCABLE.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2000 12:00 AM
Subject: oddities puzzler


> For those of you that are getting really really really really sick and
> tired of hearing about electile disfunction...
>
> I tuned a 5' 9" (135cm)  Bush & Lane today. It had been
> resomethingorothered sometime in the past, and wasn't in such good shape
> (concave soundboard, and zero to negative bearing in the killer octave
> area), but seemed like a pretty well designed and built piano that has
more
> potential than was achieved with the resomethingorothering. While I was
> strip muting it, and admiring the scale layout, I noticed something just a
> tad on the unusual side. The counter bearing bar in the bass section was
> lying between the agraffes and the step up to the tuning pin field level
> where it was supposed to have been. There wasn't a string anywhere near
> touching it, but they effectively corralled it to the extent that the bar
> was trapped in the space. The strings in the bass section came through the
> agraffes, and dragged across the plate surface to the bottom of the
> expanded coil on the tuning pin.
>
> Very interesting. I couldn't for the life of me imagine how this came to
> be. It can't be realistically possible that the bar scooted back and fell
> in the pit sometime after stringing, so it was either not placed where it
> belonged when the piano was strung, or was displaced when the bass string
> tension was let down at some future date. As to why the bass string
tension
> would have been let down to that degree, I can only guess. Apparently to
> expedite the displacement of the counter bearing bar, the better to loosen
> the coils so the string could more effectively drag the plate - the better
> to ?
>
> Now THIS is a puzzler.
>
> Ron N