hot pepper

[Mike and Jane Spalding]

Clyde,

Decades ago I worked at a summer camp in the Adirondaks.  At summer's end, an essential part of the camp closing procedure was to liberally sprinkle pepper on mattresses and linens, to keep the mice from nesting in them.  Sounds like someone at school is using the same technique.  Did you see any signs of rodent damage?  Ask someone at the school if they have mouse problems.

Mike

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Clyde Hollinger <cedel@supernet.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2002 12:18 PM
Subject: hot pepper


> 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
> 
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