Maybe these fixes will be old news to some, but they really improved my piano enjoyment so I thought I'd pass them on.
The first photo is the music room, the second shows the fixes (fingers crossed that I figured out how to include the photos).
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http://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/galleries/2666657/piano-fixes.html[/img]
The piano in the background is an ebony S&S 1936 S. In the foreground is the newcomer, a mahogany S&S 1923 A3 just rebuilt by Cunningham in Philadelphia.
The first fix lessens a problem of placing a piano near a window. The S used to live where the A3 is now. Because of the A3's length, it had to go along that interior wall. The arrangement that does least violence to the rest of the room puts the S at that east-facing window, which isn't ideal. My husband went a good way towards mitigating possible sun damage by making a foam-core insert for the window. It snugs into the frame between the glass and the white pleated shade. I've left the upper piece out to show how much sun the foam blocks even on an overcast August morning in Maine. There are other windows in the room, so the loss of light is manageable. The foam core cost about $27 at the art supply store; foam at Home Depot had the manufacturer's name emblazoned across it.
The second fix protects the piano's finish and keeps pencils, etc., in place at the keyboard. It's visible on the A3. I cut a piece of black grippy shelf liner for the music shelf where I keep pencils and a metronome. The liner protects the piano's finish and reduces the chance that a pencil will roll behind the fallboard. For years I used an ugly chunk of white liner until my husband pointed out that the stuff comes in *colors*. The black disappears on the S of course, and was a better match for the A3 than the brown. A roll of liner costs less than $5 at Walmart.
-LLW
