This was the first piano moving experience involving our new musical Instrument Shop Technician, Kelly Fabian.
A great piano moving team has been made!
I finally bought the $1400 water jet cut aluminum tipper device from Moondog Manufacturing, invented by the highly esteemed Registered Piano Technician Roger Jolly, and it made tilting this seven foot grand so smooth.
The curvature of the rubber shoe is in an “involute arc” shape as opposed to being a simple circle’s radius, which means the rotation slows itself down as you approach the crest of your lift, and the piano is more reluctant to “run away.”
Using this method saves the pedal lyre structure from undue stresses which can over time weaken the wedged tenon joints where the pillars meet the capital block and cause potential failure there. Steinway and Baldwin lyre construction is more solid, usually fashioned out of hard rock maple, but nevertheless it’s still a real concern. (We actually had this failure happen at the university before while moving our aeolian Knabe 5’8” several years ago and I had to epoxy and shore up that weaker lyre made of some inferior hardwoods…and so thank goodness now I bought the Moondog tool.)
About a year ago I did a serious finish touchup work on this instrument, as previously the lid edge was really shredded and the rim had some terrible gashes from many decades prior of normal institutional use, coming with the territory of wear and tear in this setting. Still, although cosmetics are nice to dote upon, in the context of this particular school I’ve learned that (perhaps except for our highest tier elite pianos) it simply isn’t as pressing a priority to consider as the actual musicality and worthiness of each instrument as a truly expressive musical machine. Still, it is an aspect of my craft. More on the innards of this piano later…
This was the touchdown moment when the piano went from having only two points of contact to three points of contact with the ground again.
And then it needed to be rotated up all the way to vertical.
Kelly helped by making sure it landed correctly on the sled.
A very controlled maneuver executed with decisive confidence, precise communication and teamwork.
Keyboard Phenomena 
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