"mac davis" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 10:37:30 -0600, "Jason Quick"
wrote:

So I'm sitting at the in-laws the other night in the living room. In one
corner there's an old upright piano that apparently SWMBO and the BiL
pounded around on when they were kids. The thing is at least a century
old.
Now it mostly does duty as a multi-level table on which the MIL displays
pictures of the grandkids and family.

Did I mention it's made of quartersawn white oak? *Thick* QSWO. It's
byootiful. The finish is all orange-peeled and crackly, too.

Then the MIL made some comment about how she should probably get rid of
the
thing, since no one's played it in ages. And all I could think was,
"Yeah,
give it to me, Mom...*I"ll* take care of that sumbitch..."

Jason

well, Jason.. take some advise from an ol' fart... that's what we do
best, give advise.. *g*

Aside from the "thou shalt not destroy pianos" thing, and the bad
karma of doing so, the real issue here is that your bride used to
pound on the thing... and no matter what you make out of it, it will
always be the body of the childhood friend that you killed...


Not to mention the unlikelihood that the QSWO is more than veneer deep.

I destroyed a piano once, and they're a bitch. Opporknockity, the tuner,
said that the sound board was shot and the harp (cast iron) was cracked, so
there was no way an honest man could even put it up free for the taking.
Eldest son and I spent the better part of a weekend getting it down into
small enough pieces to burn. The insides were a hoot - poplar slathered
with glue and glued to pieces of oak, some soft maple, and a white ash chunk
that I turned into candlesticks. Just like the upholstered furniture, the
framing was of the lowest sort of wood, except for the quartersawn - and
cracked - spruce soundboard, which was a pleasure to behold.

Two of the three kids learned on that old beast, but it was really intruding
into useable space. I still have some of the pins, if anyone's building a
hammered dulcimer.