[CAUT] CA for loose pins on a "D"?

[Ed Sutton]

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Cy-

You can tell if the pin block is new by looking at its underside.

Also, the underside of the soundboard may give evidence of age - or newness.

And how is the action?

It would be good to get clear about exactly what was done to rebuild this piano.  You may be surprised at the difference between living memory and the written record.

The school may have the rebuilding contract. Also, do they have any reports from earlier technicians indicating when these problems appeared?

What you are calling false beats in the tenor may be caused by bridge pins, agraffes, string problems, poor hammer/string contact, hammer that is to hard, poor seating at the bridge, and maybe if a tuning pin was loose, the string may be creeping around the hitch pin, causing poor termination. Or there could be a leaking damper, or poor muting when you're tuning the string.

To find out if it is a loose bridge pin, mute off carefully to a single string and have someone play the note while you go to the tail of the piano and press on the pin with a screwdriver tip.  If the pin is loose, it should stop beating when you press the pin.

Sorry to belabor this, but I believe it's important to back up our opinions with careful diagnosis.  (Any memories of my early experiences will be met with firm denial. It was someone else operating under the same name.)

Best wishes,
Ed Sutton

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Cy Shuster 
To: College and University Technicians
Sent: 4/16/2005 9:13:28 PM 
Subject: Re: [CAUT] CA for loose pins on a "D"?


Both bridges look new to my eye.  There are no shims in the soundboard (they wouldn't do that to a "D", would they?), and the wood looks new, so I assume it is, too.  Can't tell about the pinblock.  There is no local Steinway dealer: none in WV at all!  But I've been thinking about writing to Steinway to get its history (any contacts?).

Less than a dozen bass pins are loose.  Treble pins are adequate but not what I'd want for the tensions here.  I'll treat the whole thing if I CA it.  The loose pins are near plate struts, and/or the keyboard (not the plate flange).  I've never driven pins; I don't have the tools for that.  None seem to have been previously driven.

Turns out the DC has been unplugged for two years, and was only on for one.  The rebuild was about eight years ago, so the damage was probably done long ago.  Indoor winter humidity here has been around 33% (in homes), and is around 40% now; I'd sure like to know what it is in this auditorium in the winter.  The janitor said he filled the double-tank system about every two weeks, which seems on the high side for me.  That's the best ammo for my argument, I think.  I've given them the DC brochure and your excellent CAUT guidelines, which latter should be publicized more widely to the PTG membership.  I only found them by accident through a Google search!

Thanks for all the advice...

--Cy--
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Ed Sutton 
To: College and University Technicians 
Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2005 9:24 AM
Subject: RE: [CAUT] CA for loose pins on a "D"?


Cy-

Were the pinblock, bridge cap and soundboard replaced during the "Steinway rebuild?"  Was this "Steinway rebuild" done at the Steinway factory in New York, or by the local Steinway dealer?

Are all the bass tuning pins loose, or just a few?  How about the rest of the tuning pins? If this is a new pin block, this could be due to sloppy drilling or poor choice of tuning pins.   Is there room on the pin to allow driving it a bit deeper into the block?

CA glue is a very good emergency repair.  It doesn't damage the pin block or enlarge the hole, thus leaving the option of repinning the entire instrument or section with larger pins of one size.  (The only risk I've found is that on a vertical it may drip through onto the floor!)

You might write a letter saying that you have identified apparent problems in the pin block, bridge and soundboard, that these may be caused by extremes of humidity, and that you cannot evaluate the extent of these problems unless the climate control system is activated.  You can get a booklet from Damp-Chaser that may help, and also be sure the system is adequate.

Your plans for North Bennett Street are wonderful.  Good luck!

Ed Sutton

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Cy Shuster 
To: CAUT
Sent: 4/15/2005 10:19:08 PM 
Subject: [CAUT] CA for loose pins on a "D"?


I've been studying piano technology for ten years, on and off (I've passed the RPT written exam), and have been tuning professionally for a year and a half.  I've applied to North Bennet St. for this fall.

I was just asked to take care of an S&S D for a local community college.  It's 1917 vintage (played by Rachmaninoff at one time!), and rebuilt by Steinway about ten years ago.  It's suffering from humidity damage: 8" crack in the soundboard behind and under the treble bridge and elsewhere, false beats in the low tenor (loose bridge pins?), and loose tuning pins in the bass.  One or two are so loose I was tempted to mute them, for fear they wouldn't survive a concert.

Of the needed repairs, the only one's I'm qualified to do are to CA the loose pins, which I've done successfully three times previously.  I'll happily do this on someone's no-name, 100-year-old, 4'8" neonatal grand with rusty strings, but I want to ask for advice before doing anything irreversible to an instrument of this caliber.  I can do the repair without side effects, I'm sure (I pull the action and use copious amounts of plastic tarps), but still...

Is the right thing to do to simply write up a report and say that it needs a new pinblock, bridge cap, and at least epoxy in the soundboard cracks?  Or let Steinway re-evaluate it?  Is it better to pull the loose pins and shim with sandpaper or veneer rather than risking CA?  Will Steinway scoff if they get a CA'd pinblock to replace?

Side note: it has a disassembled DC system... sigh...

--Cy Shuster--
Bluefield, WV
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