Special Delivery

Look what we just picked up at UPS!

Thanks to EKA, we now have enough wire to string our piano, and hopefully put the original Lirika back together. We have to string the prototype first because if there are any problems with the frame, we'll need to use the old one to recast it. Once the strings go on, we can't take them off again as it's very expensive to order a full set of bass strings and steels.

You might notice we have a 19 1/2 in there. This is because the Mapes American sizes we originally went looking for are a half-size larger in MWG (music wire gauge) in the UK.

US

UK

No problem with customs this time as, unlike the bass strings, the order didn't go over the import threshold. They would have delivered direct to the door yesterday, but we were out, so went to pick up from UPS today, which is based at Hôtel des Mille Collines, better known around the world as Hotel Rwanda.

Désiré is busy exploring soundboards and hammering in tuning pin bushings. Once the tuning pins are in and the frame is secured to the piano, it will go to Marion's place so that she can string it up. We'll then need to build the keys and use the action from the original Lirika to pull the strings up to pitch and find out what she'll sound like.