CAUT

Hi All,

As you can imagine, I am beginning to receive many inquiries from folks whose pianos were not lost in the Palisades or Eaton (SoCal) fires, but were affected by smoke and ash. Do any of you have experience with situations like this? Common sense certainly goes a long way, but I have some specific questions about "remediation". I keep hearing the pianos will be vacuumed by "soft Hepa filter vacuums". Not sure just what this means. And one wonders what's being done with carpets in the rooms the pianos are in...

Twice now I have had folks cancel appt.s for me to see their pianos because their remediation company told them I should not come until after their work is done. I appreciate their concerns for my safety. Of course I am  working fast to learn just what the remediators are doing! Are there any past Journal articles that talk about this situation? I have been contacted by a neighborhood group of folks up in Altadena; I'm putting together a flyer they can share with basic info. I really think it's going to come down to what the tolerance for "smoke smell" is for each piano owner. Based on my own experience with fire-affected pianos in the past (David Abell Fine Pianos burned in 1990), pianos that are not completely rebuilt will have some lingering smoke smell for many years after their exposure.

I will say I had a novel experience a few weeks ago when I was hired as an "independent source" to check out whether all the pianos in a particular piano store had been affected by smoke! I walked around with an inventory list and literally sniffed every piano on the floor... felt pretty silly. Fortunately, even though the store itself had some smoke smell, the pianos all were fine. I believe the smoke smell was coming mainly from the carpet in the store.

Thanks everyone..

Teri

------------------------------
Teri Meredyth RPT
Harbor City CA
(310) 702-2389
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 2/1/2025 6:58:00 AM
From: Wim Blees
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Terry.

I don't have any answers to your questions., but what I would like to suggest is for the PTG chapters in SO Cal to organize a one day seminar somewhere in the LA area, where experts in restoration, including, of course, piano restoration, can explain what can and cannot be done, what's best for the piano, waiting time, etc. etc. 

Wim 

I recommend that you get a subscription to "Restoration and Remediation" mag, a journal for the restoration and remediation trade. For odor try Pooph. If working

on site use a Tyvex or similar protective suit and an air-supplied respirator. Lots of toxic materials.

------------------------------
Parker Leigh RPT
Winchester VA
(540) 722-3865
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 2/1/2025 12:31:00 PM
From: Parker Leigh
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

I recommend that you get a subscription to "Restoration and Remediation" mag, a journal for the restoration and remediation trade. For odor try Pooph. If working

on site use a Tyvex or similar protective suit and an air-supplied respirator. Lots of toxic materials.

------------------------------
Parker Leigh RPT
Winchester VA
(540) 722-3865
------------------------------

Hi, Teri,

The safety advice was very good. My younger sister lost her firefighter husband (non-smoker) to cancer, presumptive cause was work-related for firefighters. When he was working, he often said the most dangerous part of his job was cleanup after a fire. When fighting a fire in a home, they often left equipment behind, tarps they threw over furniture and valuables to protect them from water and ash, and other equipment of all kinds.

When they went back later to retrieve it, they were extremely careful of all the toxic ash and micro-particulates floating in the air, but also coming off any items that were disturbed. I wouldn’t be surprised if pianos could have invisible micro-particulates coming off all over, including later from hammers and dampers during play. Even in pianos from homes that were not burned themselves but in the smoke and ash travel patterns. Some of those burned plastics and other items common in homes would not be good to breathe in. The smell of course would also be its own issue.

Best of luck, I’ll be glad to see any information you can gather.

Kathy


Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 2:21:00 PM
From: Teri Meredyth
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Thanks Parker... good suggestion. We're beginning ot hear ideas now from the professional restorers at places like the Huntingon Gardens, etc.

 

One local piano dealership is apparently offering a service where they have movers pick the piano up and take it to their warehouse. There they wrap it in a big plastic bag with something called zeolite. This is supposed to absorb the smoke smell from the piano, etc.. Then they move it back to the home... $1500.

 

Teri

 

Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 2:38:00 PM
From: Kathy Smith
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Hi, Teri,

The safety advice was very good. My younger sister lost her firefighter husband (non-smoker) to cancer, presumptive cause was work-related for firefighters. When he was working, he often said the most dangerous part of his job was cleanup after a fire. When fighting a fire in a home, they often left equipment behind, tarps they threw over furniture and valuables to protect them from water and ash, and other equipment of all kinds.

When they went back later to retrieve it, they were extremely careful of all the toxic ash and micro-particulates floating in the air, but also coming off any items that were disturbed. I wouldn’t be surprised if pianos could have invisible micro-particulates coming off all over, including later from hammers and dampers during play. Even in pianos from homes that were not burned themselves but in the smoke and ash travel patterns. Some of those burned plastics and other items common in homes would not be good to breathe in. The smell of course would also be its own issue.

Best of luck, I’ll be glad to see any information you can gather.

Kathy



Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 2:21:00 PM
From: Teri Meredyth
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Thanks Parker... good suggestion. We're beginning ot hear ideas now from the professional restorers at places like the Huntingon Gardens, etc.

 

One local piano dealership is apparently offering a service where they have movers pick the piano up and take it to their warehouse. There they wrap it in a big plastic bag with something called zeolite. This is supposed to absorb the smoke smell from the piano, etc.. Then they move it back to the home... $1500.

 

Teri

 

Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 5:20:00 PM
From: Richard West
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Hi, Kathy,

I recently thought of a project that I wanted to run by you and David. I have some additional GAR related material that I generated while I was wading through the writing of the original Grand Regulation book years ago.

I don't know why, but at one point I thought it would be a good idea to create a condensed version of the 37 Steps. So I copied the material that Yamaha posted on the back covers of several Journals. I don't remember which year or years they appeared.  I'd have to dig down to find them again.

Anyway I've attached a copy of my little booklet. The booklet doesn't duplicate those Journal back-page ads exactly. I had to compress the material somewhat to make the booklet. Then, I put a copy on my external hard drive. And after the Grand Regulation book took off, I no longer thought a condensed version would be necessary or valuable. I sort of forgot about it. But, I dug it out of my records recently and am passing it along for you to determine if there's really any use for the booklet at this point. It's put on 8 & 1/2 by 14" legal paper folded in half and stapled in the middle. A copy place was able to collate it all and do the stapling.

On a related possible resource I recently took several family super 8 tapes to a production company for duplication because my video camera wouldn't play the tapes any more. They're family videos from the '80s and 90s. The production company was able to put all the tapes on a 64GB thumb drive. 

Fast forward to this week when I wondered if the two Laroy Edwards 37-Steps tapes as well as Laroy's other grand regulation material couldn't be put on a thumb drive and made widely accessible here in the Tucson area or distributed to GAR students. Would there be copyright issues? PTG does own the Yamaha material. I have two of the grand related materials with tapes that my local production company could duplicate to a thumb drive. He might not be willing to do the work because of copyright issues. Maybe this is a home-office question.

You may be already doing something like that, but it just now occurred to me so I thought I'd run it by you and David.

I hope you're doing okay in fire-ravaged LA. Even if you haven't been affected directly, I'm sure the air has become nasty to deal with. We had days here when we felt the effects, even though the Santa Anna winds were supposed to have blown most of the smoke out to sea. Some of it came back to us. 

Life is good here in Oro Valley. Not much excitement, but enough to keep life interesting. Some excitement I avoid (politics of Trump), although Pattie and I rant in agreement over the horrible stuff that's coming out of Washington DC these days. Smoke from the east that's worse than anything coming out of CA.

Richard West

Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 2:38:00 PM
From: Kathy Smith
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Hi, Teri,

The safety advice was very good. My younger sister lost her firefighter husband (non-smoker) to cancer, presumptive cause was work-related for firefighters. When he was working, he often said the most dangerous part of his job was cleanup after a fire. When fighting a fire in a home, they often left equipment behind, tarps they threw over furniture and valuables to protect them from water and ash, and other equipment of all kinds.

When they went back later to retrieve it, they were extremely careful of all the toxic ash and micro-particulates floating in the air, but also coming off any items that were disturbed. I wouldn’t be surprised if pianos could have invisible micro-particulates coming off all over, including later from hammers and dampers during play. Even in pianos from homes that were not burned themselves but in the smoke and ash travel patterns. Some of those burned plastics and other items common in homes would not be good to breathe in. The smell of course would also be its own issue.

Best of luck, I’ll be glad to see any information you can gather.

Kathy

Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 5:45:00 PM
From: Fred Sturm
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Richard (and Kathy and David),

The Service Manual Archive of the Education Hub has a couple of 37 Steps documents. 

The first is the handout that attendees of the Little Red Schoolhouse got (2010 version), one page per step in outline form.

The second is a written manual that apparently was written to accompany the two tapes. It covers each of the steps in considerable detail, as well as providing additional background. It is 172 pages long.

We don't have the tapes. If someone has copies and would like to provide them to the Education Committee, we can figure out how to put them in the PTG vimeo account and link to them.

.

Regards,

Fred Sturm

fssturm@comcast.net

Youtube Spotify Deezer Apple Amazon

http://fredsturm.net

www.artoftuning.com

"Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it." Brecht

Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 5:20:00 PM
From: Richard West
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Hi, Kathy,

I recently thought of a project that I wanted to run by you and David. I have some additional GAR related material that I generated while I was wading through the writing of the original Grand Regulation book years ago.

I don't know why, but at one point I thought it would be a good idea to create a condensed version of the 37 Steps. So I copied the material that Yamaha posted on the back covers of several Journals. I don't remember which year or years they appeared.  I'd have to dig down to find them again.

Anyway I've attached a copy of my little booklet. The booklet doesn't duplicate those Journal back-page ads exactly. I had to compress the material somewhat to make the booklet. Then, I put a copy on my external hard drive. And after the Grand Regulation book took off, I no longer thought a condensed version would be necessary or valuable. I sort of forgot about it. But, I dug it out of my records recently and am passing it along for you to determine if there's really any use for the booklet at this point. It's put on 8 & 1/2 by 14" legal paper folded in half and stapled in the middle. A copy place was able to collate it all and do the stapling.

On a related possible resource I recently took several family super 8 tapes to a production company for duplication because my video camera wouldn't play the tapes any more. They're family videos from the '80s and 90s. The production company was able to put all the tapes on a 64GB thumb drive. 

Fast forward to this week when I wondered if the two Laroy Edwards 37-Steps tapes as well as Laroy's other grand regulation material couldn't be put on a thumb drive and made widely accessible here in the Tucson area or distributed to GAR students. Would there be copyright issues? PTG does own the Yamaha material. I have two of the grand related materials with tapes that my local production company could duplicate to a thumb drive. He might not be willing to do the work because of copyright issues. Maybe this is a home-office question.

You may be already doing something like that, but it just now occurred to me so I thought I'd run it by you and David.

I hope you're doing okay in fire-ravaged LA. Even if you haven't been affected directly, I'm sure the air has become nasty to deal with. We had days here when we felt the effects, even though the Santa Anna winds were supposed to have blown most of the smoke out to sea. Some of it came back to us. 

Life is good here in Oro Valley. Not much excitement, but enough to keep life interesting. Some excitement I avoid (politics of Trump), although Pattie and I rant in agreement over the horrible stuff that's coming out of Washington DC these days. Smoke from the east that's worse than anything coming out of CA.

Richard West

Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 2:38:00 PM
From: Kathy Smith
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Hi, Teri,

The safety advice was very good. My younger sister lost her firefighter husband (non-smoker) to cancer, presumptive cause was work-related for firefighters. When he was working, he often said the most dangerous part of his job was cleanup after a fire. When fighting a fire in a home, they often left equipment behind, tarps they threw over furniture and valuables to protect them from water and ash, and other equipment of all kinds.

When they went back later to retrieve it, they were extremely careful of all the toxic ash and micro-particulates floating in the air, but also coming off any items that were disturbed. I wouldn’t be surprised if pianos could have invisible micro-particulates coming off all over, including later from hammers and dampers during play. Even in pianos from homes that were not burned themselves but in the smoke and ash travel patterns. Some of those burned plastics and other items common in homes would not be good to breathe in. The smell of course would also be its own issue.

Best of luck, I’ll be glad to see any information you can gather.

Kathy

Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 5:49:00 PM
From: Teri Meredyth
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Guys, how about you start your own thread rather that post over the thread of smoke-damaged pianos? It's confusing.

 

Teri

 

Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 5:45:00 PM
From: Fred Sturm
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Richard (and Kathy and David),

The Service Manual Archive of the Education Hub has a couple of 37 Steps documents. 

The first is the handout that attendees of the Little Red Schoolhouse got (2010 version), one page per step in outline form.

The second is a written manual that apparently was written to accompany the two tapes. It covers each of the steps in considerable detail, as well as providing additional background. It is 172 pages long.

We don't have the tapes. If someone has copies and would like to provide them to the Education Committee, we can figure out how to put them in the PTG vimeo account and link to them.

.

Regards,

Fred Sturm

fssturm@comcast.net

Youtube Spotify Deezer Apple Amazon

http://fredsturm.net

www.artoftuning.com

"Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it." Brecht

Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 5:20:00 PM
From: Richard West
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Hi, Kathy,

I recently thought of a project that I wanted to run by you and David. I have some additional GAR related material that I generated while I was wading through the writing of the original Grand Regulation book years ago.

I don't know why, but at one point I thought it would be a good idea to create a condensed version of the 37 Steps. So I copied the material that Yamaha posted on the back covers of several Journals. I don't remember which year or years they appeared.  I'd have to dig down to find them again.

Anyway I've attached a copy of my little booklet. The booklet doesn't duplicate those Journal back-page ads exactly. I had to compress the material somewhat to make the booklet. Then, I put a copy on my external hard drive. And after the Grand Regulation book took off, I no longer thought a condensed version would be necessary or valuable. I sort of forgot about it. But, I dug it out of my records recently and am passing it along for you to determine if there's really any use for the booklet at this point. It's put on 8 & 1/2 by 14" legal paper folded in half and stapled in the middle. A copy place was able to collate it all and do the stapling.

On a related possible resource I recently took several family super 8 tapes to a production company for duplication because my video camera wouldn't play the tapes any more. They're family videos from the '80s and 90s. The production company was able to put all the tapes on a 64GB thumb drive. 

Fast forward to this week when I wondered if the two Laroy Edwards 37-Steps tapes as well as Laroy's other grand regulation material couldn't be put on a thumb drive and made widely accessible here in the Tucson area or distributed to GAR students. Would there be copyright issues? PTG does own the Yamaha material. I have two of the grand related materials with tapes that my local production company could duplicate to a thumb drive. He might not be willing to do the work because of copyright issues. Maybe this is a home-office question.

You may be already doing something like that, but it just now occurred to me so I thought I'd run it by you and David.

I hope you're doing okay in fire-ravaged LA. Even if you haven't been affected directly, I'm sure the air has become nasty to deal with. We had days here when we felt the effects, even though the Santa Anna winds were supposed to have blown most of the smoke out to sea. Some of it came back to us. 

Life is good here in Oro Valley. Not much excitement, but enough to keep life interesting. Some excitement I avoid (politics of Trump), although Pattie and I rant in agreement over the horrible stuff that's coming out of Washington DC these days. Smoke from the east that's worse than anything coming out of CA.

Richard West

Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 6:26:00 PM
From: Richard West
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Sorry, Teri. My email was intended for Kathy and I just messed up. My bad.

Richard

Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 5:49:00 PM
From: Teri Meredyth
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Guys, how about you start your own thread rather that post over the thread of smoke-damaged pianos? It's confusing.

 

Teri

 

Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 5:45:00 PM
From: Fred Sturm
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Richard (and Kathy and David),

The Service Manual Archive of the Education Hub has a couple of 37 Steps documents. 

The first is the handout that attendees of the Little Red Schoolhouse got (2010 version), one page per step in outline form.

The second is a written manual that apparently was written to accompany the two tapes. It covers each of the steps in considerable detail, as well as providing additional background. It is 172 pages long.

We don't have the tapes. If someone has copies and would like to provide them to the Education Committee, we can figure out how to put them in the PTG vimeo account and link to them.

.

Regards,

Fred Sturm

fssturm@comcast.net

Youtube Spotify Deezer Apple Amazon

http://fredsturm.net

www.artoftuning.com

"Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it." Brecht

Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 5:20:00 PM
From: Richard West
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Hi, Kathy,

I recently thought of a project that I wanted to run by you and David. I have some additional GAR related material that I generated while I was wading through the writing of the original Grand Regulation book years ago.

I don't know why, but at one point I thought it would be a good idea to create a condensed version of the 37 Steps. So I copied the material that Yamaha posted on the back covers of several Journals. I don't remember which year or years they appeared.  I'd have to dig down to find them again.

Anyway I've attached a copy of my little booklet. The booklet doesn't duplicate those Journal back-page ads exactly. I had to compress the material somewhat to make the booklet. Then, I put a copy on my external hard drive. And after the Grand Regulation book took off, I no longer thought a condensed version would be necessary or valuable. I sort of forgot about it. But, I dug it out of my records recently and am passing it along for you to determine if there's really any use for the booklet at this point. It's put on 8 & 1/2 by 14" legal paper folded in half and stapled in the middle. A copy place was able to collate it all and do the stapling.

On a related possible resource I recently took several family super 8 tapes to a production company for duplication because my video camera wouldn't play the tapes any more. They're family videos from the '80s and 90s. The production company was able to put all the tapes on a 64GB thumb drive. 

Fast forward to this week when I wondered if the two Laroy Edwards 37-Steps tapes as well as Laroy's other grand regulation material couldn't be put on a thumb drive and made widely accessible here in the Tucson area or distributed to GAR students. Would there be copyright issues? PTG does own the Yamaha material. I have two of the grand related materials with tapes that my local production company could duplicate to a thumb drive. He might not be willing to do the work because of copyright issues. Maybe this is a home-office question.

You may be already doing something like that, but it just now occurred to me so I thought I'd run it by you and David.

I hope you're doing okay in fire-ravaged LA. Even if you haven't been affected directly, I'm sure the air has become nasty to deal with. We had days here when we felt the effects, even though the Santa Anna winds were supposed to have blown most of the smoke out to sea. Some of it came back to us. 

Life is good here in Oro Valley. Not much excitement, but enough to keep life interesting. Some excitement I avoid (politics of Trump), although Pattie and I rant in agreement over the horrible stuff that's coming out of Washington DC these days. Smoke from the east that's worse than anything coming out of CA.

Richard West

I just want to pop in to relate a little about how things regarding ash etc. were and are still being handled in Lahaina on Maui. First of all, Lahaina is just a tiny village in comparison to the LA conflagrations. 

They basically scraped the entire zone of destruction and rolled the detritus up in plastic "burritos", I think that phase took over a year. But the town was no-man's land until that initial phase was completed. Those were moved to a temporary site for about another year till after much haggling a permanent disposal site was recently determined. It was reported: "enough refuse to cover five football fields five stories high, including soil contaminated with lead and arsenic."

You can find plenty of news coverage about Lahaina if you're interested in details, but my point is to take a long term view and get educated about the dangers involved before you expose yourselves. It took years before some of the hazards created by 911 were understood. Of course there were similar fires closer to home in California that would be good places to look for wisdom. As much as you would like to help people out and do some business as well, I would be fairly conservative in approaching these situations and circumspect regarding how much a seal of approval you might want or be qualified to offer.

------------------------------
Steven Rosenthal RPT
Honolulu HI
(808) 521-7129
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 02-02-2025 18:53
From: Teri Meredyth
Subject: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Forgiven! LOL...

 

Teri

 

Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 6:26:00 PM
From: Richard West
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Sorry, Teri. My email was intended for Kathy and I just messed up. My bad.

Richard

Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 5:49:00 PM
From: Teri Meredyth
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Guys, how about you start your own thread rather that post over the thread of smoke-damaged pianos? It's confusing.

 

Teri

 

Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 5:45:00 PM
From: Fred Sturm
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Richard (and Kathy and David),

The Service Manual Archive of the Education Hub has a couple of 37 Steps documents. 

The first is the handout that attendees of the Little Red Schoolhouse got (2010 version), one page per step in outline form.

The second is a written manual that apparently was written to accompany the two tapes. It covers each of the steps in considerable detail, as well as providing additional background. It is 172 pages long.

We don't have the tapes. If someone has copies and would like to provide them to the Education Committee, we can figure out how to put them in the PTG vimeo account and link to them.

.

Regards,

Fred Sturm

fssturm@comcast.net

Youtube Spotify Deezer Apple Amazon

http://fredsturm.net

www.artoftuning.com

"Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it." Brecht

Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 5:20:00 PM
From: Richard West
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Hi, Kathy,

I recently thought of a project that I wanted to run by you and David. I have some additional GAR related material that I generated while I was wading through the writing of the original Grand Regulation book years ago.

I don't know why, but at one point I thought it would be a good idea to create a condensed version of the 37 Steps. So I copied the material that Yamaha posted on the back covers of several Journals. I don't remember which year or years they appeared.  I'd have to dig down to find them again.

Anyway I've attached a copy of my little booklet. The booklet doesn't duplicate those Journal back-page ads exactly. I had to compress the material somewhat to make the booklet. Then, I put a copy on my external hard drive. And after the Grand Regulation book took off, I no longer thought a condensed version would be necessary or valuable. I sort of forgot about it. But, I dug it out of my records recently and am passing it along for you to determine if there's really any use for the booklet at this point. It's put on 8 & 1/2 by 14" legal paper folded in half and stapled in the middle. A copy place was able to collate it all and do the stapling.

On a related possible resource I recently took several family super 8 tapes to a production company for duplication because my video camera wouldn't play the tapes any more. They're family videos from the '80s and 90s. The production company was able to put all the tapes on a 64GB thumb drive. 

Fast forward to this week when I wondered if the two Laroy Edwards 37-Steps tapes as well as Laroy's other grand regulation material couldn't be put on a thumb drive and made widely accessible here in the Tucson area or distributed to GAR students. Would there be copyright issues? PTG does own the Yamaha material. I have two of the grand related materials with tapes that my local production company could duplicate to a thumb drive. He might not be willing to do the work because of copyright issues. Maybe this is a home-office question.

You may be already doing something like that, but it just now occurred to me so I thought I'd run it by you and David.

I hope you're doing okay in fire-ravaged LA. Even if you haven't been affected directly, I'm sure the air has become nasty to deal with. We had days here when we felt the effects, even though the Santa Anna winds were supposed to have blown most of the smoke out to sea. Some of it came back to us. 

Life is good here in Oro Valley. Not much excitement, but enough to keep life interesting. Some excitement I avoid (politics of Trump), although Pattie and I rant in agreement over the horrible stuff that's coming out of Washington DC these days. Smoke from the east that's worse than anything coming out of CA.

Richard West

Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 2:38:00 PM
From: Kathy Smith
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Hi, Teri,

The safety advice was very good. My younger sister lost her firefighter husband (non-smoker) to cancer, presumptive cause was work-related for firefighters. When he was working, he often said the most dangerous part of his job was cleanup after a fire. When fighting a fire in a home, they often left equipment behind, tarps they threw over furniture and valuables to protect them from water and ash, and other equipment of all kinds.

When they went back later to retrieve it, they were extremely careful of all the toxic ash and micro-particulates floating in the air, but also coming off any items that were disturbed. I wouldn't be surprised if pianos could have invisible micro-particulates coming off all over, including later from hammers and dampers during play. Even in pianos from homes that were not burned themselves but in the smoke and ash travel patterns. Some of those burned plastics and other items common in homes would not be good to breathe in. The smell of course would also be its own issue.

Best of luck, I'll be glad to see any information you can gather.

Kathy



Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 2:21:00 PM
From: Teri Meredyth
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Thanks Parker... good suggestion. We're beginning ot hear ideas now from the professional restorers at places like the Huntingon Gardens, etc.

 

One local piano dealership is apparently offering a service where they have movers pick the piano up and take it to their warehouse. There they wrap it in a big plastic bag with something called zeolite. This is supposed to absorb the smoke smell from the piano, etc.. Then they move it back to the home... $1500.

 

Teri

 

Original Message:
Sent: 2/1/2025 12:31:00 PM
From: Parker Leigh
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

I recommend that you get a subscription to "Restoration and Remediation" mag, a journal for the restoration and remediation trade. For odor try Pooph. If working

on site use a Tyvex or similar protective suit and an air-supplied respirator. Lots of toxic materials.

------------------------------
Parker Leigh RPT
Winchester VA
(540) 722-3865
------------------------------

I just saw this, I do have a DVD of the 37 Steps video...I am pretty sure this is what you all are wanting. How or who may I contact on this. I would like to help if this is what you want/need.

Kevin Fortenberry

(806) 778-3962

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Kevin Fortenberry
Registered Piano Technician
Longview, TX 75602
806-778-3962
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-02-2025 17:45
From: Fred Sturm
Subject: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Richard (and Kathy and David),

The Service Manual Archive of the Education Hub has a couple of 37 Steps documents. 

The first is the handout that attendees of the Little Red Schoolhouse got (2010 version), one page per step in outline form.

The second is a written manual that apparently was written to accompany the two tapes. It covers each of the steps in considerable detail, as well as providing additional background. It is 172 pages long.

We don't have the tapes. If someone has copies and would like to provide them to the Education Committee, we can figure out how to put them in the PTG vimeo account and link to them.

.

Regards,

Fred Sturm

fssturm@comcast.net

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http://fredsturm.net

www.artoftuning.com

"Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it." Brecht

Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 5:20:00 PM
From: Richard West
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Hi, Kathy,

I recently thought of a project that I wanted to run by you and David. I have some additional GAR related material that I generated while I was wading through the writing of the original Grand Regulation book years ago.

I don't know why, but at one point I thought it would be a good idea to create a condensed version of the 37 Steps. So I copied the material that Yamaha posted on the back covers of several Journals. I don't remember which year or years they appeared.  I'd have to dig down to find them again.

Anyway I've attached a copy of my little booklet. The booklet doesn't duplicate those Journal back-page ads exactly. I had to compress the material somewhat to make the booklet. Then, I put a copy on my external hard drive. And after the Grand Regulation book took off, I no longer thought a condensed version would be necessary or valuable. I sort of forgot about it. But, I dug it out of my records recently and am passing it along for you to determine if there's really any use for the booklet at this point. It's put on 8 & 1/2 by 14" legal paper folded in half and stapled in the middle. A copy place was able to collate it all and do the stapling.

On a related possible resource I recently took several family super 8 tapes to a production company for duplication because my video camera wouldn't play the tapes any more. They're family videos from the '80s and 90s. The production company was able to put all the tapes on a 64GB thumb drive. 

Fast forward to this week when I wondered if the two Laroy Edwards 37-Steps tapes as well as Laroy's other grand regulation material couldn't be put on a thumb drive and made widely accessible here in the Tucson area or distributed to GAR students. Would there be copyright issues? PTG does own the Yamaha material. I have two of the grand related materials with tapes that my local production company could duplicate to a thumb drive. He might not be willing to do the work because of copyright issues. Maybe this is a home-office question.

You may be already doing something like that, but it just now occurred to me so I thought I'd run it by you and David.

I hope you're doing okay in fire-ravaged LA. Even if you haven't been affected directly, I'm sure the air has become nasty to deal with. We had days here when we felt the effects, even though the Santa Anna winds were supposed to have blown most of the smoke out to sea. Some of it came back to us. 

Life is good here in Oro Valley. Not much excitement, but enough to keep life interesting. Some excitement I avoid (politics of Trump), although Pattie and I rant in agreement over the horrible stuff that's coming out of Washington DC these days. Smoke from the east that's worse than anything coming out of CA.

Richard West

Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 2:38:00 PM
From: Kathy Smith
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Hi, Teri,

The safety advice was very good. My younger sister lost her firefighter husband (non-smoker) to cancer, presumptive cause was work-related for firefighters. When he was working, he often said the most dangerous part of his job was cleanup after a fire. When fighting a fire in a home, they often left equipment behind, tarps they threw over furniture and valuables to protect them from water and ash, and other equipment of all kinds.

When they went back later to retrieve it, they were extremely careful of all the toxic ash and micro-particulates floating in the air, but also coming off any items that were disturbed. I wouldn't be surprised if pianos could have invisible micro-particulates coming off all over, including later from hammers and dampers during play. Even in pianos from homes that were not burned themselves but in the smoke and ash travel patterns. Some of those burned plastics and other items common in homes would not be good to breathe in. The smell of course would also be its own issue.

Best of luck, I'll be glad to see any information you can gather.

Kathy



Original Message:
Sent: 2/2/2025 2:21:00 PM
From: Teri Meredyth
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

Thanks Parker... good suggestion. We're beginning ot hear ideas now from the professional restorers at places like the Huntingon Gardens, etc.

 

One local piano dealership is apparently offering a service where they have movers pick the piano up and take it to their warehouse. There they wrap it in a big plastic bag with something called zeolite. This is supposed to absorb the smoke smell from the piano, etc.. Then they move it back to the home... $1500.

 

Teri

 

Original Message:
Sent: 2/1/2025 12:31:00 PM
From: Parker Leigh
Subject: RE: Smoke Affected Pianos in SoCal

I recommend that you get a subscription to "Restoration and Remediation" mag, a journal for the restoration and remediation trade. For odor try Pooph. If working

on site use a Tyvex or similar protective suit and an air-supplied respirator. Lots of toxic materials.

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Parker Leigh RPT
Winchester VA
(540) 722-3865
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