We all too often forget how fragile we all are and that there are a lot of people far worse off then we. Well done Ed and God bless. -- Newton Hunt Highland Park, NJ mailto:nhunt@jagat.com A440A@AOL.COM wrote: > > Greetings all, > Ok, God works in weird ways. No sooner had I finished writing the last > post, I got a call. It was from a student, a music major at Vanderbilt, that > had, unfortunately, been in Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital for the last > month. She was admitted before Christmas for acute depression,and was still > there. > There was a piano in the common room, and she really wanted to play it, as > she said, it was very theraputic to be able to continue rehearsing her pieces > and it was also very theraputic for the others on the same floor to have live > music. However, she said that the piano was so out of tune it was > unplayable, and there were several notes that didn't work as well as two > broken strings. The pedals had problems,too. She commented that it may be > the drugs that she had to take, but it just didn't sound like a piano. And > she just didn't want to play it like it was. > She had requested that the hospital get it tuned and was told that there > was no budget for something like that, (and here I need to rant about a > university with a $2,000,000,000 ENDOWMENT, that is Billion!!! not being able > to budget $100 for maintenance of a piece of equipment that a whole ward full > of kids with problems could benifit from, while they can spend $1000 per day > on "experts" to tell them what kind of medication is best for their patients, > geez, it turned my stomach and saddened my heart). She was calling to ask > if I knew someone that could donate the tuning and repair. I told her I > would see. > I went back in the shop, trying to finish a pinblock, but this really > disturbed me so much that I finally said to hell with waiting for some > "donor", I had to do it just to live with myself so I packed up my tools, > and went over there. Guess what, I was staring at at......KIMBALL console. > As dense as I may at times be, the irony was NOT lost on me. > Ok, I know when I am beat, so I began rummaging around for a Paps mute > and tools to tighten the let-off rail. I remembered why I hate these things > while I was fighting to get the new string down between the bass and treble > wires. Put powdered Teflon on all those squeaking trapwork pieces, bent the > dampers back in the vicinity of where they should be, bent some balance rail > pins around so the warped keys would play, and then pulled my SAT out to see > where we were. > It didn't even register! Got my fork out and found where I was. 150 > cents flat! <sigh>. So, I made an FAC, dialed up a Vallotti, gave it a 15 > cent boost and ran through the piano. I sounded like a steel guitar player > on Quaaludes, but I had it tight in 15 minutes. Then I went back through and > tuned it. Even went over the break aurally, (y'all clap now, you heah?) > It didn't change my mind about the quality of these things one bit. It > was a cheap excuse for a piano, but on this job, that was beside the point. > These kids were so starved for something to be intrigued by that I am really > glad and gratified I did this. As I left, she was in there playing a > Schubert piece, and I noticed that there were at least a dozen of the > patients that had quietly sat down and were listening. > I guess what I learned this afternoon is that there is a place for > everything, and though my shoulder is sore from the alien posture that tuning > this thing required, and it wasn't a very good tuning since I am so out of > practise tuning the vertical pins, there is a room full of kids with more > problems than I ever had that got something out of it. So, to all of you > techs that service these things regularly, my hat is off to you. If I > disparaged any of you for your trade, it was not intentional and I apologize. > > Regards, > Ed Foote RPT
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