Now Here Is How To Deal With Equipment Failure!

[lbpesq]

Here’s an equipment failure even more of a hassle than breaking a string on a Floyd Rose equipped guitar, and the wonderful way in which it was handled.  Enjoy!

Bill, tgo

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[adriaan]

Only in Rotterdam.

[elwoodblue]

LOL...another successful piano drop.
This one was much gentler 

[edwardofhuncote]

That lady wins. I don't care what you ever had go bad, if you can play through that and be a good sport, you win. 

[rv_bass]

That was an awesome display of positive improvisation! 

[cozmik_cowboy]

OK, she was just spectacular through that whole thing (not that I've ever known any talent who would have been a complete a$$hat about it, of course....... ) - but, speaking as one who once soldered a broken fuzzbox during a guitar solo, I gotta add:  That is some serious roadie work right there.


Peter (who should probably clarify that no, he was not himself playing said solo; now that would be roadie work!)

[paulman]

This what a pro does in a crisis, it was all so beautiful!  Thanks for posting that!

[bigredbass]

Classic evidence of things you WON'T learn in your Julliard or Berklee scholarship / degree program:

1) Never trust a d**n rental piano, this is why the big boys and girls' personal piano tours with them.

2) No matter what, KEEP PLAYING

3) And be sure you woodshed some Victor Borge videos, and woodshed some PDQ Bach. . . . . just in case you get bit by 1) and 2) !

4) INSIST on the 'Bogus Piano' compensation in your contract

5) And last but not least, have your Personal Assistant have 4 cans of Charcoal Lighter in the traveling case at all times.

[cozmik_cowboy]

Classic evidence of things you WON'T learn in your Julliard or Berklee scholarship / degree program:

1) Never trust a d**n rental piano, this is why the big boys and girls' personal piano tours with them.

Whoa!  I'm seriously gimped up in my old age, and all I ever toted around was a B-3 & a spinet; I hate to think how I'd feel if I'd been humping a grand! (But then, those folks probably aren't working a lot of venues where they're lifting the piano onto the stage by brute force, or carrying it up a fire escape.)

Peter (who will again clarify: there was someone on the other end.........)

[sonicus]

Singer/ songwriter Tori Amos has recorded and toured exclusively with Bösendorfers since 1993.

 Her model of choice is the giant Bösendorfer Model 290 Imperial , or Imperial Bösendorfer is the largest model and flagship piano manufactured by Bösendorfer.

From what I recollect she toured with a piano tuner/ technician and a piano moving specialist crew .
She has  awesome talent that I really enjoy


.Bösendorfer built the first Imperial in 1909, following a suggestion by composer Ferruccio Busoni to build a model with an extended range. Busoni sought to extend the range to accommodate his transcription of Johann Sebastian Bach's organ works. ... The Bösendorfer Imperial features 97 keys: a full eight octaves.

[StephenR]

Vince Welnick had a Bösendorfer in his home rehearsal studio, beautiful sounding piano, not sure which model it was. I felt awful that for whatever reasons the Dead and their crew relegated Vince to playing only a digital keyboard and then didn't even give him control over how the patches were programmed or which ones were available. Hearing Vince play on an "real" piano revealed that he was actually quite an accomplished keyboard player, it was hard to discern that based on his sound with the GD.

Back in the 80s I had a brief part-time job working for a furniture refinisher. We refinished a number of pianos including grand pianos and I was surprised at how easy it was to move them on a piano board, totally unexpected. I would much rather move a piano than a B3.

[edwardofhuncote]

During my time at Nashville Custom Case, we built two clamshell-type roadcases for the grand pianos at the Opry House. I remember those two were quite an undertaking just by the sheer size of them. The only one I can remember being physically larger was for the new console at the Ed Sullivan Theater when Letterman moved his show over there. CBS ordered a new console, we custom-built the case, shipped it to Japan, the console made one trip in it, up the elevator to its destination... and they destroyed the case.


Weird coincidences. Both of the local guys I know who work on pianos have called me in the last 24 hours. One stopped by the shop last night for some setup work on an octave mandolin. So I had to share this video.

[gearhed289]

In my now 24 years in the case business, I have gladly bypassed ever having to do one for a grand piano. 

[JimmyJ]

Nice response by this pianist - as opposed to the expected storming off the stage and yelling at people.  Although that may have happened afterwards...

A couple piano stories for y'all: 
For many years James Taylor's US touring gear has included a Yamaha 7-ft midi-equipped grand traveling in a road case.  Local crews help with load-in and out and we used to hire local tuners at each venue but in recent years our own keyboard techs have learned to tune with great and consistent results.

Story 2: I did a short tour in 2016 with the great pianist Hiromi and drummer Simon Phillips.  She is a Yamaha sponsored Artist who plays their top-of-the line SFX concert grands which are provided by Yamaha when she tours.  When we showed up at each venue there would be an SFX already onstage and tuned. 

The tour in every other way was a "jazz tour" in that the venues are fairly small and the travel arrangements are minimal and tight.  We had a crew of two "do-everything" champion roadies who did sound (on whatever system was provided), merch, load-in and out, drove the truck, etc.  Their main job in this case was caring for Simon's huge drum set which required new heads several times during the short tour.

At one point we played two back to back shows in different French cities which meant a long overnight drive for our crew to get to the next town in time for load-in and setup.  The band travelled the following day by train.  We played the first gig, packed up and departed leaving the Yamaha SFX on stage as usual.  And like clockwork there was another SFX on the stage when we arrived at the venue the following day.

Then we realized that it was the SAME piano as the night before.  Somehow while we were scrambling to get ourselves and our gear from one town to the next there was an invisible team of Yamaha piano movers driving that concert grand around the country.  We never saw them... 

That's what you call company sponsorship!  I would think Yamaha spent more money chasing our tour around the EU with those pianos than any of us made playing the music.  Kind of an eye-opener.

Jimmy J

[keith_h]

I've seen Hiromi a couple of times both with her own band and touring with Stanley Clarke. She is the only Jazz artist my wife likes which I think it has to with her energy on stage. As far as this tour I won't post a link but there some decent audience videos of the tour on Youtube for those that might want to get an idea of what it sounded like.