Hello everyone.  Terry Smythe asked for a way to lay back a grand single
handed.  I had the pleasure to watch one man -- single handed -- remove 
a 9-foot Steinway grand from his trailer, wrestle it into a school
auditorium, and set it up!

He rents out grands for concerts as a business.  How he sets them up is
amazing to watch.  With the grand on its skid he fastened a custom metal
piece (which looked like one side of a regular piano lay back) to the
grand.  It was made to be the same height as the leg (when set up).  The
curve in the custom metal piece put the centre of gravity just a little
before the centre of the pianos balance point.  

This metal fixture was attached to the grand using its regular legs
hardware.  He then put the front and right side leg on.  Then he took
hold of the right leg and with a very little effort tipped the Steinway
into the horizontal position.  He then "hooked onto" the grand using a
harness thing he was wearing, raised the side with the custom fixture and
slipped a metal post underneath to support the piano.  He then took off
the custom frame, put the leg on and removed the temporary metal post.

To get it back on the skid just do it in reverse.  Piano on to the post,
off came the leg, on went the fixture,  over went the grand on to the
skid, off came the other legs and lyre, into the trailer it went.  All 
in just a few minutes time.  The lid stayed on the grand and was secured
with a strap.  The secret was in the curve of the fixture.

Another neat thing was his harness that was made like a set of braces
[ suspenders ] with a wide belt.  Attached to this belt was a strap that
he could adjust for length and it had a hook on one end.  That way all
the lifting was done by his legs.  I could make a drawing if anyone is
interested.

Best to all.

Ron Schmuck
ronalds715@aol.com

 [ This is worth making a set of photographs which we can place at the
 [ MMD web site, or somewhere!  :)   -- Robbie