Lemonade

tune4u@earthlink.net tune4u@earthlink.net
Wed, 15 Jan 2003 18:43:12 -0600


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... as in "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."

Urgent call from a church (good client, Baldwin grand): "There is a =
terrible rattle in the piano. We really need Mr. Barnard up here this =
week."

I get the message too late to call last night and we are expecting big =
snow tonight and tomorrow so "this week" is about over. I rearrange =
schedules and drive the half-hour trip to the church.=20

"What rattle?" says I. After much trial and error the young music pastor =
is finally able to make a discernable rattle by wanging E5 pretty hard. =
"There!" he says in triumph. I tell him to put his hand around the small =
lid prop and lid prop hinge. WANG! No rattle.

Someone else complained about that rattle years ago because there was a =
small piece of brown action cloth glued where the bumper on the small =
prop hits the big prop ... but it had come loose.

"Do you have a guest artist this week or a special musical production?" =
I ask, meaning "What was the big emergency, Dude?" (Sorry, Rev. Dude) =
"No," says he, I just noticed it while practicing something yesterday.

Must ... control ... tuning ... hammer .... of ... death ...

So the tuning was due in February. I got an early tuning out of it. It =
was about 8 cents flat of their organ which is about 3 cents sharp. So I =
charged for a pitch correction. (Yeah, yeah, I know but I blew most of a =
day for this.)

The room was very warm. "Oh," says the pastor, "we are heating with a =
new wood-burning furnace and haven't figured out how to regulate it very =
well." Bingo, Ka-ching: Sold them a Dampp-Chaser.

Explained the danger of too-dry conditions. "Cracks can develop in =
places like this." I say, pointing in the general direction of the =
soundboard and bridges. Oops. What's that? The bass bridge is full of =
little eyelash cracks! "That's got to be fixed!" And I explain.

So ... extra travel, and a wasted, messed up day? Or sweet lemonade?

More, please.

Alan Barnard
Salem, MO
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