Three dead keys

It arrived on the back of an estate car, on loan from a friend of the engineer, with a note taped to the lid listing what did not work. The middle C was silent. So were the two notes above it. The sustain pedal had been disconnected at some point and never reattached, and the internal amp put out a hum that sat almost exactly on a B flat.

By any reasonable standard it should have gone straight back. What kept it in the room was that the missing keys forced different voicings. You cannot play the chord you would have played, so you play the one underneath it, and it sits lower and stranger and better.

The hum stayed in

We tried to notch it out and the instrument went flat and lifeless — the hum was carrying more of the character than anyone expected. It is still there on the final mix, buried but present, and on the quietest track you can hear it swell slightly when the compressor lets go.

Half of what people call a sound is a piece of broken equipment that nobody got around to fixing.

It went back to its owner in April with the note still taped to the lid.