hot pepper

[Clyde Hollinger]

Friends,

OK, I'm just curious, but I hope someone can help me anyway.  I tuned at
a school today, two Baldwin grands and two Baldwin Hamiltons.  Inside
the first studio piano I found what appears to be crushed dried hot
pepper, such as would come from a supermarket in a spice bottle, in
abundance on the keybed where you could see it between the keys, and
also sprinkled around on the bottom board.

I would have thought that was a prank done by the kids, but when I went
to tune the other studio piano, which is pretty well at the other end of
a fairly large school complex, I found exactly the same thing!  Whoever
did it was careful not to put it on top of the keys, where it could have
worked its way into the cracks and caused function problems.

I done 1000s of pianos, but this is a first for me!  I intend to vacuum
it out, but can anyone tell me if a piano tuner may have done this and
for what reason?

Regards,
Clyde Hollinger, RPT
Lititz, PA, USA