The only way you wouldn't know about the return of my childhood piano, is if you hadn't stopped by here in a while. Ten years ago she flooded after the levees broke, and sat in 6 inches of water for quite a while.
Ryan Peterson-Piano Repairer & Tuner
She's made the journey back to New Orleans from Tennesse in what feels like a very huge coming back around for me...yet another coming home and definitely something to celebrate!
I'd made an appointment with Ryan Peterson to come over yesterday morning to take a look at the piano and tell me what he thought it would take to get her repaired and tuned. When he opened the base of the piano, we noticed some dry stuff in the bottom that looked like cat food. As he removed a couple of the keys, we discovered the same stuff under those keys. Turns out, this cat food rice crispie looking stuff was in the basin below ALL of the keys, between the felts and the strikers.
With keys everywhere,
we went to work!
Never in a million years would I have ever thought there would be anything inside the piano, and especially NOT cat food crispie bars. They were so firmly molded into the basin of the piano that they had to be dug out with a spoon.
Had I wanted to, I probably could have carved out a very nice bar. As it was, I just dug and vacuumed. I probably got 4-5 bowls this size out of that length where the full keyboard rests!
All cleaned up and ready to be tuned, the keys returned. Just that cleaning made a world of difference in the sound and sticking keys. Ryan explained that because of the age and the length of time it had been since she had been tuned; he'd have to do a base tune first through all the keys and then come back and repeat to fine tune. After all of this, we were in for the long haul.
By the time Ryan left, she was sounding wonderful. The bigger problem is that the sound board is split in two places. That sound of crashing plywood on concrete every time I hit the D/D flat below middle C is NOT going away without great time and expense. I teased Ryan that it was actually okay with me, since it brings memories of my debris removal man. Vann will never be very far.
I have a theory about the mystery of the cat food crispies. It does require a lengthier story than just a floater would touch on. I'll be back with our mystery story and more about Ryan Peterson Piano Tuning very soon!
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