Thanks to Michael who wrote privately how the numbers on the tail of the plate could be translated into a manufacture date. I've long wondered what those numbers meant. The letter corresponds to the year, starting with A in 1911, continuing through the alphabet, ending up with Z in 1936. They started over with A and discontinued sometime around WWII. This one has 1/14 R on the plate, so that would translate: January 14, 1928, if I've got it right. Keith, Mark, Tom D: lyre sticks have that same D 5659, as does the keyslip, keyframe, fallboard, lyre guide rail, etc., which I guess has some meaning to the factory people. So I did a lot of looking, following Yogi Berra's advice, but didn't observe (the serial #). I'm hoping for maybe a handwritten number on some obscure place on the action or keys. If I see something close to 260,000 I'll holler Bingo! As for the smell, I guess it helps that the owner never complained of the smell, only the dozen broken strings, ostensibly broken by the heavy-playing neighbor. At first, she refused to believe that her prescious pets were turning her piano into a place of worship (Let us spray). So if she's okay with the feline fragrance, my job may be limited to restringing/block/refinish soundboard (no cracks in board or bridges) since the action still works. Just smells bad. Tom Cole michael campi wrote: > Thomas, > Michael Campi here. A-1 list lurker. The serial number is also located > on the front of the keyframe and can be verified by a letter stamped > at the back of the plate it will read something like 17/10 C > The letters correspond to years. It was started with A in 1911 so the > above would be read as the 17th day of October, 1913. This continued > through the end of the alphabet and then started over and ended > sometime around WW 2. > Sincerely > Michael Campi > > _________________________________________________________________ > MSN Toolbar provides one-click access to Hotmail from any Web page – > FREE download! > http://toolbar.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200413ave/direct/01/ > > >
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