F
Francesco S. Carta
Yesterday I brought a piano to my home.
It's a Belarus vertical piano, the inside of the keyboard cover reads
"Heller", too, but I believe this mark has been added afterwards by the
reseller. It will cost 350¤ to my brother (who will own it) and it's a
really fair deal for me - who will play it ;-)
One key didn't almost play, other two keys remained stuck on each other,
but I was confident: an heavy, sturdy, old Russian piano needs a fair
stronger hit to become useless.
Today I opened it - it looked like a sealed chest, but once I understood
how to get my hands in, I removed all the coverings in thirty seconds -
just matter of turning a couple of wooden kludges.
Amazing.
Not a single piece of plastic in the whole craft: just wood, bare metal
and tissue pads. Once the structure was on sight, it has been childplay
to repair it: the two stuck keys had a sustaining pad put across the
space of the two mechanics (just turned the pad around to fit its space
again) while the key that didn't play had its hammer's arm loosened at
its plug (added a few drops of carpenter's glue).
....
There is an electric keyboard just behind of me. I bought it several
years ago, and it served me well - even though it was an hassle to
periodically remove all those screws to reach the contacts and wipe out
all the dust that made them fail... but there is something I will never
be able to "repair", even abusing the best of my good will: the keys are
not pressure-sensible - needless to say they're not weighed either.
It may be kludgey, it may be old, but I prefer to play on my sturdy C++.
It's a Belarus vertical piano, the inside of the keyboard cover reads
"Heller", too, but I believe this mark has been added afterwards by the
reseller. It will cost 350¤ to my brother (who will own it) and it's a
really fair deal for me - who will play it ;-)
One key didn't almost play, other two keys remained stuck on each other,
but I was confident: an heavy, sturdy, old Russian piano needs a fair
stronger hit to become useless.
Today I opened it - it looked like a sealed chest, but once I understood
how to get my hands in, I removed all the coverings in thirty seconds -
just matter of turning a couple of wooden kludges.
Amazing.
Not a single piece of plastic in the whole craft: just wood, bare metal
and tissue pads. Once the structure was on sight, it has been childplay
to repair it: the two stuck keys had a sustaining pad put across the
space of the two mechanics (just turned the pad around to fit its space
again) while the key that didn't play had its hammer's arm loosened at
its plug (added a few drops of carpenter's glue).
....
There is an electric keyboard just behind of me. I bought it several
years ago, and it served me well - even though it was an hassle to
periodically remove all those screws to reach the contacts and wipe out
all the dust that made them fail... but there is something I will never
be able to "repair", even abusing the best of my good will: the keys are
not pressure-sensible - needless to say they're not weighed either.
It may be kludgey, it may be old, but I prefer to play on my sturdy C++.