high humidity (was tapping strings)

[Jeff Tanner]

My mother has one of the Baldwin/Howard/Samick 5'8" grands from the early
80's.  It was the first of these the dealer got in, so was one of the early
ones in the Baldwin-Samick project.  She's taught piano on it for close to
20 years now.  I'll touch up the tuning every couple of years, but overall
it holds tune exceptionally well, sitting right beneath the heat/air vent.
Slight variations with climate changes, but nothing like other pianos in
other homes I tune, and it rarely gets to the point the tuning is
unbearable.  But there's no control piano with a solid board sitting next
to it to compare it to.  I've seen these pianos in other situations with
climate control problems not do as well, but again, there's no control
piano to compare them to.

But my mom's piano gives me the impression that laminated boards perhaps do
handle the swings better than solid boards do.  It's only an impression.

Jeff

>This discussion brings another anomoly to mind. When laminated
>soundboards first became common, I expected that, whatever the sonic
>results, at least pitch would be more stable in response to humidity
>swings, because the board would expand/shrink much less. But experience
>hasn't born this out. At least my own experience seems to show no
>difference whatsoever in pitch variation in response to humidity swings
>between solid and laminated boards.
>	Anyone care to comment?
>Regards,
>Fred Sturm
>University of New Mexico