some more equal

[Ron Nossaman]

How does one wash a morning out of memory? Why is it that huge and
wonderful labyrinthine old monolithic churches so often have such nasty pianos?

Choir room: A 50's vintage Harwood spinet, with all the bells, whistles,
clangs, and rattles.

Parlor: A late model Wurlitzer spinet, with all the bells, whistles,
rattles, clangs, and a BWARF through the tenor and low treble courtesy of a
severely concave soundboard. Joy.

The highlight was the 5' Cable-Nelson grand in the sanctuary. New hammers,
and keytops that apparently were judged to be a close enough fit to the
keys without the inconvenience of trimming them to fit. The rest of the
piano original - and virtually unplayable. But that's just the usual stuff.
The interesting part, at least to me, was the tell-tale speaking length
changes evident in the tenor/treble bridge. While I can't know for sure
without measuring the scale, which likely won't happen unless they suddenly
decide to have the piano reincarnated, this appears to be yet another equal
tension scale. Too strange for a Cable-Nelson, and how many of these equal
tension scaling projects from various manufacturers are out there anyway?
The spacing of the speaking length adjustments (runs of 10, 8) would seem
to indicate that they didn't even use half sizes, which makes it even more
bizarre. I would never have suspected Cable-Nelson of having been guilty of
exploratory scaling. Ever. So my local horizon was broadened a little in
spite of it all. It didn't make up for the rest of the misery, but it was
sure a lot more entertaining than the rest of the attention getters I did
battle with that trip. Now if they would just be struck by lightning and
call me back to remanufacture it, there is a thing or twelve I'd like to do
- besides recording the scale for my archives.

Ron N