Play-a Paianna!

[shroom]

very cool! can't wait to see them all!

[Elliot]

Yah ain't seen nuttin yet.... I just dragged home a white Baby Grand that's darn near new. The lid and one leg are missing. Some kind of moving or storage snafu. Got it for 49 bucks. With padded bench. Have not unloaded it yet. It's only a five-foot Baby Grand, but man, it looks like a million bucks. Has a $8.000 price tag still on it.

My only concern is that it may be worth too much to take to BRC. I might ought to arrange a leg and a lid and get a few thousand for it.
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Naw.

[Ugly Dougly]

Snafu? Fubar! I'll bet they dropped it.

[Elliot]

That's certainly possible, but for $49, and located just two blocks from where I was anyway, I figured it was worth trying. I'll know more when I get it unloaded. It is kind'a buried in the center isle of my bus.

Oh... plus $5 to some guy to help me load it. So $54,-. The bench looks worth that.

[gaminwench]

What brand is it, Elliot? That alone will tell you alot about quality ...

[Elliot]

It's a Shafer & Sons.

Let's see if this works:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380244820369&viewitem=&sspagename=ADME%3AL%3AOU%3AMOTORS%3A1123

[Ugly Dougly]

$5 to move it? Crap, you gots hardcore negotiation skilz.

[Elliot]

"Store brand entry level pianos made in Korea." Now it makes more sense!

[gaminwench]

Yep, the korean & chinese pianos are more like furniture than fine instruments... but put some mirrors on it and it'll be playaschwankiful!!! They play okay, certainly for the playa, but not really a musician's a-list instrument!

[Elliot]

Table top for a lid, and a stripper pole.

I've been planning that for the first grand, but it needs a TON of work.

Well, we'll see about this one once I get it unloaded. Now that we have identified the Schafer & Sons brand (Colton Piano Co.) as a throw-away, we don't need to worry about restoring it and getting rich.

[Elliot]

Allrightythen....

We have Placement.

Noon, Sunday (morning after Man Burn), this one is dropping off the "Dispatch Tower" at Kinetic Cab Company on Esplanade at 9:00:



We'd like to have Kris Kristofferson sing "Sunday Morning Coming Down" for the occation, but we are willing to sing it ourselves.

No... don't know yet how high, but hoping for 20 feet.

[Elliot]

Kids, it is all right to try this at home, but you MUST do these two things:

1: Remove the rear wheels (casters) of the piano, so the bottom of the thing cannot roll towards you and break both your legs.

2: Make darned sure the top of the thing does not tip towards you and break all your ribs.

That in order; what we have here is a Schumann & Sons upright piano, minus all the Stuff in front of the strings. Aside from the potential hazards mentioned above, it was super easy to get it to this stage. The entire action (mechanism) lifted out in one easy piece. ("...one easy piece." Who gets it?) The rest was just two flat blade screwdrives and a crow bar.

It does not look possible to separate the "harp" from the sound board, since there are screws under the strings. But obviously it will sound better with the board on it anyway.

I figure I will install it flat on some sort of cart so it can be rolled around.

Once that is done, who has a cat we can toss on there?

[Elliot]

At the risk of cross posting; there will be a musical Kinetic Cab-aret at Kinetic Cab Company Friday evening September 3, 9 PM -- 2 AM. At least one of my pianos will be available for you to make joyful noise on.
At Kinetic Cab Company, Esplanade and 9.

Of course, that "camp piano" will be there all week, but Friday night you will have a dedicated audience.

[geekster]

The piano was one of the things I enjoyed about the Skinny Kitty Tea House the year we camped next to them.

[Elliot]

Well, it does not look like we are going to drop a piano from a great height this year. I do not have room to haul all this Stuff. But it was fun to brainstorm about it. Next year.

I will have a good piano at Kinetic Cab Company that I can also haul around a bit, and there will be one in Kantina Apokiliptika.

[Elorrum]

:D


Kids, it is all right to try this at home, but you MUST do these two things:

1: Remove the rear wheels (casters) of the piano, so the bottom of the thing cannot roll towards you and break both your legs.

2: Make darned sure the top of the thing does not tip towards you and break all your ribs.

That in order; what we have here is a Schumann & Sons upright piano, minus all the Stuff in front of the strings. Aside from the potential hazards mentioned above, it was super easy to get it to this stage. The entire action (mechanism) lifted out in one easy piece. ("...one easy piece." Who gets it?) The rest was just two flat blade screwdrives and a crow bar.

It does not look possible to separate the "harp" from the sound board, since there are screws under the strings. But obviously it will sound better with the board on it anyway.

I figure I will install it flat on some sort of cart so it can be rolled around.

Once that is done, who has a cat we can toss on there?

I have some piezo elements, a little amp and fx box.... will get some dowels and super balls. may be fun to bounce a bowling ball on it.

[Elliot]

Thursday evening.... At this point I'm operating in Disaster Mode. Hoping to get on the road in 24 hours. We have WAY too much Stuff we want to bring. And much of it is not ready anyway.

But I'm bringing my best piano because we have Sophia Santulli getting ready to sing for us. And a second piano to be placed in Kantina Apok.

The stripped Shumann might not be all that difficult to bring, so it is still in the running. I'm thinking it can go flat on the trailer deck, with other things astride and on top of it. Won't know until tomorrow afternoon.

There is something about this darned internet and forums like this one....
It is almost too easy to bounce ideas around, and then I fall in the trap of saying "I can do that!" Because technically, I can. But time and money is something entirely different. So I'm in a nasty funk right now -- from kicking myself all day.

[Elliot]

Latest.... Word is Terminal Village, with Kantina Apokiliptika, has been placed closer to 2:30 than 3:30. Still on A.

[talito]

don't sweat it elliot. even if you brought one piano it would be a major contribution and greatly appreciated. as a matter of fact, if you brought no pianos, we'd still be singing and dancing!

[masho]

Relax Elliot....do your best (after watching this thread for the last 6 months I'm sure your best is pretty fucking good) and stop kicking your "self", kick something else if it helps, preferably soft.

[amir]

holy jesus! i'm totally leaving to the playa today and I was gonna try to bring a piano but it looks like you've got me covered! So now I'm gonna bring all my sheet music and play some Beethoven Liszt Chopin and Rachmaninoff! Can't wait!

I'm gonna be at 3 and Esplanade @ acoustic combustion. I'll be looking for you elliot!

[talito]

amir, im a pianist too, and will be camping at 3:00 and D with BRC institute for unlearning. i'll bring the jazz, funk, R&B, pop, and rock chops.

[Elliot]

We just finished putting two pianos on wheels. Now we load them up and head to the next loading point. Should arrive Playa late Saturday.

Kantina Apokiliptika has been placed closer to 2:30 than 3 -- still on A. That's the Willard -- it is easily pushable now.

The good one that we can tow around is a Beau. It hooks to my pedal car.

Gotta get the trailer ready now. Peter is here helping me.

[Elliot]

Elorrum, sorry no piano harp -- no room to haul it. But looking forward to meeting you anyway.

Must get bigger trailer for next year!

[diatoira]

another pianist here! i'm so excited to have found y'all... esp you elliot with your massive piano haul. THANK YOU! last year, my first, i was lucky enough to be near skinny kitty teahouse. (i'll be at flattery camp, 3 + E). i also found a piano somewhere else randomly one crazy playa night. still have no idea what camp i was in at the time. anyway, i played SK's piano pretty much every afternoon, but i stuck to my classical stuff cos it was a kinda chill, quiet space. i play jazz/anything else i like too. oh and i sing, particularly jazz, would love to find a pianist who can play while i sing - am not talented enough to accompany myself quite yet. i'm gonna bring my music, that's for sure... hope i find you, and amir and elliot on the playa!

[Elliot]

Amazing how you folks are showing up here now -- after I was supposed to have left two days ago! LOL

"All the pianos" will have to be next year -- only room for two this year. Leaving in an hour or so.

I'll be in Kinetic Cab Company, Esplanade and 9.

[diatoira]

meant to try and find some of y'all, didn't happen...tho i was close to skinny kitty again and was happy to be able to play over there. i came over to the kinetic cab co one night but i think perhaps it was too late... i didn't see any vehicles w/ pianos on them. ?

well, indeed, we'll have to do some sort of meetup involving "all the pianos" next year! :-)

[Elliot]

Yeah, it tends to get that way in Black Rock City. Tal caught up with me, but not his opera-singing friend.

I did make it to BRC late Saturday night with two pianos.

The piano I had at KCC was moved to different places a couple of nights -- Tangoed Up In Blues one night, and Barbie Death Camp And Wine Bistro an other night.

The other piano was at Kantina Apokiliptika the whole time, and they tell me that was a big success.

Of the two, it looks like the heavy old beast of a Willard & Co. tolerated the desert better than the lightweight modern Beau. Kantina Apok reports the Willard kept working normally, but I had to make mechanical repairs to the Beau every day. Worst is that all the hammer pivot pins started falling out. I'm guessing the wood shrank from the dryness and the holes became larger. The Beau lost its tune something awful also.

I really fouled up this business of getting some of us together in one place a the same time. But I suppose that's what next year is for.

I personally observed a couple of people just kind'a stumble across the Beau and sit down and enjoy playing it (Hi Penny!), and that made it all worthwhile!

[diatoira]

indeed it does happen that way. i never made it to kantina apokiliptika, darn it. i did figure out which other camp i played a piano at last year - ashram galactica. but this year, they were tearing down by the time i got over there to check it out (saturday afternoon!?) . boo on that.


re: piano maintenance on the playa, the folks at skinny kitty said their piano got completely rained on at the beginning of the week - i think they were in the middle of unloading/setup when the rainstorm hit - and had to be totally retuned/repaired (i guess that means one of the skinny kittians is a piano tuner!). as a result it sounded even better than last year, at the beginning of the week at least. by the end of the week it didn't sound so hot, but well, i'd take a creaky piano over boring repetitive techno any day

in any case - i'm glad to know there were other pianos out there, being played, and i'm hopeful that next year we can all track each other down!

[Bay Bridge Sue]

As Czarina of Kantina Apokiliptika this last year, I can unequivicably state that the Willard (now known as St Willard the Wonderful) Performed FLAWLESSLY through the entire run. We had a few issues of hanging keys later (I attribute it to the dust and damp from earlier) but it was the centerpiece of the Kantina.

I am only hoping that any future gig I do has such a fine and wonderfully (almost) tuned instrument... I STILL get willards thinking about how awesome it was!

Elliot... from the bottom of my formerly cold, black heart, now brightened by the sounds of music (esp, 4 PM Tuesday!!!!!) THANK YOU for the use of the piano.... and I, personally, owe you a debt of gratitude for bringing my ggig to life this year!!!

In Tonation,
bb