[ For awhile we had a series of Piano Horror Stories in MMD, which
 [ told of the crazy things wrong when the tech looked at the piano.
 [ But when you do it to yourself, it's embarrassing!  -- Robbie

Hi John,  I know exactly what you mean!  Things can happen before you
realize it!  There is no more sinking feeling than seeing your newly
restrung piano lying flat on its back on the floor, wondering how you
are going to get it back up again!

The old Lakeside player that Bill Jelen now owns almost broke my legs
during restringing.  I had the bright idea of using kitchen chairs at
each corner, to support the piano while on it's back while restringing.
One of them collapsed, almost trapping my legs.  Never again.  Chris
wasn't too happy about the broken chair, either!

We were moving a upright once; I had the pickup truck backed up to
the door, ready to move the piano into the house.  Suddenly, without
warning, the piano just tipped over.  The leg caught on the door-facing
of the house, and the piano just hung there, balanced over the side of
the truck, with its leg jammed into the door-facing.  It didn't break
the leg either.  Now, that's workmanship!

I found out the hard way about the removable nameplate on the Foster
pianos.  If I am by myself I will take the plate out with the piano
still standing up, so I can just "walk" the plate out.  I removed the
strings on the first one I restrung (the piano was still on its
rollers).  Well, I started taking out the lag bolts, and that big
nameplate fell off and hit my foot.  That hurt!

If at all possible, I will do my piano work outside when the weather
permits.  I love being outside.  It was Spring and I had just repaired
the soundboard.  I had the same Foster piano on its back in the carry-
all on the back of the tractor.  A little thunderstorm came up, and I
knew if the piano got wet it might be ruined.  Wouldn't you know it,
that darn tractor would _not_ start.

Chris and I had to carry the piano up the hill to the carport.  We (and
the piano) got soaked!  The plate wasn't installed yet so it wasn't too
heavy.  So we spent the next hour drying everything off.  No harm done
except to my pride.

Anyone want to share their embarrassing piano stories?

Best Regards
Andy Taylor, Tempola Music Rolls
http://www.bootheel.net/~tempola/