[CAUT] University piano replacement program

[Fred Sturm]

On Jul 2, 2008, at 5:45 AM, tony wrote:

> My experience is the more expensive the piano, the more delicate it  
> is (more sensitive to humidity changes and less tuning stability. In  
> a new piano, assuming the pinblock is tight, doesn't the board move  
> more in a "high quality" piano with a thinner board designed for  
> better tone? Is that necessary for the Practice room pianos? How  
> frequently can you get to these pianos to tune them in a year?  
> Doesn't the care & maintenance of the "Quality" Concert and Studio  
> pianos constantly change you tuning plans and become priority?

	I don't know that tuning stability relative to humidity change is  
related to "how expensive a piano is." I don't think thickness of the  
board has much to do with it either. There do seem to be some models  
that move more and faster in response to a humidity change, but I  
haven't found that this is very predictable, and certainly not  
relative to "high versus low quality/price point." I think the biggest  
factor is idiosyncrasies of the particular stringing scale (and the  
factor that leads to tuning instability may have other positive  
effects).
	One thing that does seem to lead to a bit more tuning stability  
sometimes is age - older boards and bridges maybe are less sensitive,  
I suspect. Usually but not always this is accompanied by reduced tonal  
output.
	How frequently can we get to practice pianos? Depends on our total  
hours as opposed to number of pianos, and what priorities we set.  
Concert instruments get highest priority, and get tuned very often,  
because they need to be as near perfect as we can get them, every  
single unison all the time. The number of tunings given to any  
individual piano is dependent mostly on how critical it is, not on how  
sensitive it is.
	Tuning stability is lower on my list than tone production and  
quality, and action responsiveness. The piano needs to be capable of  
making music. Tuning takes a lot of our time, but is not the most  
important thing we do. An institution that focuses on number of  
tunings to design its piano maintenance program needs to talk to  
somebody who knows a bit about comprehensive service.

Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20080702/f1e1758f/attachment.html