It was about 10 years ago that I immigrated to Israel and shipped my
Knabe Ampico here as well.
As I recall, it took about 3 months before it arrived, but the day
finally came and I was excited. The shippers had constructed a
special crate to hold the piano and support it. (Note: they told me
that the last grand piano that they shipped overseas belonged to
Liberace.) Anyway, two men arrived to bring the piano up to my
apartment with a flat truck and no lift.
I should have refused and made them bring more people but they
proceeded to unload it and much to my dismay, they tried to lower it
from the truck and it fell about 4 feet to the ground. I was in shock
and close to hysterics but wanted to know how the piano was.
Unbelievably, it suffered only a rounded corner (missing about 1 cm)
and 2 broken ivories. Those idiots tried to claim that it was
pre-existing!
The soundboard, action, rest of the case and bridges were all intact.
They brought it upstairs, set it up and I plugged it in (through a
transformer). The motor started to whir, I found one loose tube and
corrected it and the piano started to play.
Eliyahu Shahar
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