I read with interest Damon's story about the piano destined to be
smashed up which reminded me of a lucky chance I had a couple of years
ago.  My sister in-law visited a friend hairdresser who was working in
her garage.  In the corner was the player action, etc., from the old
piano nearby.  After the haircut she contacted me to tell me the action
was about to be thrown on the fire heap (next week) as the piano
repairer told the owner that it wasn't worth fixing.

When I arrived I noticed all the motor materials and bellows had been
recovered recently (however, recently equates to ?) but the materials
were in perfect condition.  I convinced the owners to help me reinstall
the components into the piano as I was certain there would be a
reasonable chance of getting something working.

After a couple of hours and many questions such as, "Where did you find
this bit when you pulled it out," and careful analysis of where tubing
probably connected, we hooked up a vacuum cleaner to one side of the
main trunking and to their surprise all the notes on the bottom end
played at once -- very reassuring and exiting for them and me!  There
were still bits of main trunk I didn't know where they belonged so
capping that off we put a roll through and noticed the bass and
accompaniment played flawlessly.

Further investigation revealed where the missing trunking was meant
to go, but the pipe was too short and loose fitting.  Being a Sunday
afternoon and the hardware store was closed, I told them to pick up
a bit of plastic hose next day and showed them where to connect it.
Total success!  The lady rang me immediately, very exited, and held the
phone to the piano which was working to perfection.  The only thing
that appeared to prevent it from working in the first place was a leaky
main trunk.

I don't know why the tech would have dismissed such an easy repair and
advised the action was unrepairable and only fit for the fire.  Maybe
he thought there were too many chances the problems may have been much
deeper...

Robert Weismantel
Birkdale, Queensland, Australia
r.weismantel@griffith.edu.au.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]