In the many years that I have tuned and restored pianos, I have
encountered a few disasters.  The first was a brand new Baldwin grand
that fell off a truck.  At first it appeared that there was no damage,
and the piano was delivered.  Within hours of delivery, our office
received a telephone call from the purchaser: "The piano lid is
mysteriously rising on its own!"  The force of the break (on the bass
side) was putting pressure on the lid forcing it upward.  The lid kept
on rising until the string tension had pushed the lid out of its way
and all tension was released with a loud bang.

The second incident was a Hammond studio upright piano that I was
called to tune.  When I lifted the lid, I saw the top of the plate
encasing the pin block was extended about three inches from the back
supports of the piano.  The next was an old upright with a half plate.
Again, I was called to see if I could repair it.  Upon opening the top,
I found all the strings and pin block resting on top of the piano
hammers!  Fortunately I never encounter a piano that broke during or
after tuning it.

In my early years of tuning, I worked for a company who sent me on
service calls.  The piano was a new Everett studio upright.  No matter
what I did, I could not get it to stay in tune.  I tuned it several
times and it would drift out of tune within minutes.  In desperation,
I telephoned my boss, who had been in the piano business for many
years.  He went to the home and discovered the cast iron plate was
cracked on the treble side of the piano.  The crack was down behind the
key bed where it was difficult to view.  Apparently the piano had been
dropped or there was a manufacturing defect.  The warranty covered the
problem and the piano was replaced.

Since then, I have encountered a couple of pianos with visible cracks
beginning in the cast iron plate, yet the pianos were still functional.
I often wonder if, in time, the cracks increased to the breaking point.
In some, the cracks remained stable and the pianos are still in use.

Bruce Clark