Grant is acquitted... and now we can move onto the preparation for our upcoming coast tour! We will be moving around with a Mozart-era Walter fortepiano, an early version of the hammered piano... and that means that there is the regular tuning and maintainence that needs to be done on a more regular cadence! First things first... some of the keys were sticking a little bit as the felt had expanded a bit in the change of weather, and that means that they need to be gently compressed back a bit (about a millimetre or two...) so that the keys fall back without resistance. Like all these early instruments (fortepiani and harpsichords), the difference between disaster and working well is generally on the order of millimetres... and with the change of humidity and temperature that comes from the seasons... well, that is just enough to throw things out as things bend and swell just a tiny little bit!

Still... we always prefer these instruments compared to the straight-jacketed iron monsters that pass for keyboard instruments these days! Even if they are continual ongoing maintenance headaches.

So, popping out the keyboard mechanism... my wife did the repairs, whilst I sat on the stool with the keyboard casing sitting on me... useful as always...

... and we had a moment of panic when it didn't slide back in quite right... but it turned out that something had dropped under the casing, making it just a couple of centimetres taller than it should have been which meant that the hammers were not clearing under the veneer casing of the main instrument.

We will have to get used to moving this one... it is slightly heavier and more unwieldy than a harpsichord, and so we need help at each concert stop. It is possible with two people, but there is a dangerous moment when we rotate the instrument and it is much better to have at least three people!

Plus, we are little people... and we can't afford to strain ourselves or we would be unable to play the concert!

Handy Crypto Tools

Infinex: The future of self-custodied crypto wallets. Simple but powerful to use, made for normies!
Ledger Nano S/X: Keep your crypto safe and offline with the leading hardware wallet provider. Not your keys, not your crypto!
Coinbase Wallet: Multi chain wallet with lots of opportunities to Learn and Earn!
Binance: My first choice of centralised exchange, featuring a wide variety of crypto and savings products.
WooX: The centralised version of WooFi. Stake WOO for fee-free trades and free withdrawals! This link also gives you back 25% of the commission.
GMX.io: Decentralised perpetual futures trading on Arbitrum!
Coinbase: If you need a regulated and safe environment to trade, this is the first exchange for most newcomers!
Crypto.com: Mixed feelings, but they have the BEST looking VISA debit card in existence! Seriously, it is beautiful!
CoinList: Access to early investor and crowdsale of vetted and reserached projects.
Cointracking: Automated or manual tracking of crypto for accounting and taxation reports.
KuCoin: I still use this exchange to take part in the Spotlight and Burning Drop launches.
MEXC: Accepts HIVE, and trades in most poopcoins! Join the casino!
ByBit: Leverage and spot trading, next Binance?
OkX: Again, another Binance contender?