Hi list, Looked at a "Mozart" birdcage piano today, and other than needing a good cleaning, everything seemed to be intact and in pretty decent shape, for its age, which I estimate at about 100 years. The Atlas does not correspond to the four digit serial number, which is 3748, so the age is a guess. Anyway, my tuning hammer fits the pins pretty good, and the action pulls away easily in order to strip mute the strings. It is approx. 175 cents flat, and the customer understands the real possibility of MANY broken strings, even if the pitch is not FULLY restored to A440. There is some mold on the base of shanks, and here and there, and a full cleaning is in order. the key board is fine, and everthing else seems ok. I will probably subcontract this job out, as i have never worked on or tuned a birdcage before...not that i would never work on one, but I just think i'd rather give it to a tech with plenty of birdcage experience. I'm busy enough right now as it is. Question: this piano has been covered and stored in a garage for quite some time, and a variety of spiders (no widows that i could see) have made it their home, so i wondered if it would be safe for the piano to use a "fogger" placed in the base, activated and then put the kick board back? I know this would surely kill all the little creepy-crawlies, but would it damage the piano? I told the customer i would get back to her on that. Any advice on tnis? thanks! Terry _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp.
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