I looked at, and passed on, a Francis Bacon grand yesterday that was anywhere from a half semitone to an octave flat, often within a unison. This piano did have one very impressive feature though. The rear duplex in octave six was the shortest I've ever seen, the shortest of these being a whopping 7 millimeters long. In all fairness, the duplex bearing bar (about 5mm wide) was out of place and right at, or extending slightly over the edge of the plate. There was plenty of evidence in the form of gold paint and brush tracks, that someone had worked on it at one time, but I couldn't tell if the bar was in it's original position or had been repositioned for some reason. Moved back as close to the hitch pins as it would go, there would have been more like 15mm minimum length. If I could have reached, I could probably have slipped one business card between the plate and the bridge, but I doubt that two would have gone. I was impressed. It was interesting one time, but I wouldn't want to do it every day. Ron N
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